Mending Tangerine
by DangoCorn
Summary: Nami finds herself feeling helpless. Unable to prevent the tears and erratic sobs from pouring out of her, she tugs the surgeon closer in a desperate, futile effort to make her presence felt. [AU].
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, or its characters, or the display picture :}!**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 1**_

Perhaps it is crazy to say that in spite of the eight years of drudgery, loathing, and agonizing tolerance of the smug, hateful man whose name she can't even bear to utter, Nami is now someone...happy.

 _Happy_.

A word she long ago deserted; a word that no longer fit in her dictionary of emotions. _Why should it?_ she would think. Her beloved Bellemere was shot dead. Gen's scars would bore into her already wounded spirit, each and every time he looked at her with that tint of disappointment, that discontented hue that seemed so subtle but felt like a searing pierce to her heart. For as long as she can remember, she endured the resentment all the townspeople felt towards her; but of course. _Why wouldn't they hate her?_ her thoughts used to constantly scream. She, after all, had agreed to let the shameful, treacherous tattoo of the man who killed her mother be carved into her arm, for what she feared to be forever.

She resorted to stealing, trickery, the art of charming men, and learned of the best places to hide and stay out of sight. She was, on numerous occasions, chased by shrouds of aristocrats when she failed to sneak in their palaces quietly enough; and no matter the number of times she 'betrayed' Arlong and tried giving his name up to the military force, they wouldn't spare her a glance. And nor would he. She more often than not forgot how incredibly sly and skillful that sorry excuse of a man was. He took all precautions needed to make sure he was looked upon in society as someone generous, kind, and most importantly, innocent. Who in the world, after the numerous, unskillful thefts she took part in, would believe _her_ words?

He was the kind of man to, in the very pit of shadows, take her precious townspeople's money, and keep them quiet through intimidation and threat. But she knew that no matter how many times she tried doing something, tried to get someone to _listen_ , he wouldn't dare hurt her.

Because, quite simply: he needed her.

She was, after all, and still is, the very best cartographer a person could hope to come across. Skilled cartographers were rare, making him determined to use her for her skillfulness. He needed someone that knew East Blue like the back of their own hand. And she, of course, was the perfect pick.

She wasn't working for him for no reason, evidently. They agreed that if she were to gather one hundred million belis and hand them over, regardless of how long it took her, whether it was ten, fifteen, or twenty years, she could buy her treasured town back.

 _"I'd rather die than break a promise when it comes to money,"_ he dared to say to her with his ever vexing sneer, placing his bulky, gruff palm atop her small, trembling copper head. _"Take all the time you need. I will keep my promise."_

Maybe she was stupid, foolish even, and deeply desperate for any sign of hope to actually believe his words.

So no, for a long, long time, she couldn't call herself a _happy_ girl.

Yet, and it astounds her until this very day that a group of rookie, wacky men with long noses, swirly brows and moss-for-hair led by a scrawny, happy-go-lucky dork were the ones to reach out and pull her out of the nightmare she once feared was to be eternal.

...

Nami smiles.

She really loves their guts, those idiots.

"Nami!" Nojiko's voice rings out like a tinkling wind chime on a breezy summer morning. The hope within her blossoms through her mesmerizing turquoise eyes as she wipes the trickling bead of sweat off her forehead. Her hand slips a shiny pair of barber scissors out of her apron and, swinging it playfully with her index finger, Nojiko flashes her younger sister a smile. "All set?"

Nami returns it with a slightly childish, mischievous grin. "Go for it."

The soft noise of the snipping scissors fills the cartographer's ears as she watches various wisps of vibrant orange hair flow down her face and fall onto her bare shoulders. Whilst getting her hair cut from short to shorter, Nami grabs a sheet of Kleenex, wipes the vivid red lipstick off her lips, and then carefully takes her valued pair of pearl earrings off before safely packing them away.

Nojiko lets loose a satisfied puff of air and steps back to admire her work.

"Not half bad, eh?" she says, brushing Nami's neck to get rid of any excess hair strands. "For a boy's haircut, I must say I did a pretty darn good job!"

Nami's supposedly well-thought-out plan of temporarily converting into a male is going fairly well, or so she believes, seeing how a girl as feminine as she, is slowly, but surely, starting to come off as 'manly'.

As manly a female with such extreme feminine qualities can possibly get, that is.

Inevitably, one problem remains up in the air.

"My chest," she mutters grouchily, gazing down at her breasts which, needless to say, are one of her most prominent features.

Laughing at her younger sister's obvious distress, Nojiko disappears and reappears in a flash with two absurdly wide, stretchable bands to hide the bloomers, and a sweatshirt Nami recognizes as one of Luffy's. She frowns, confused.

"Your friends dropped off a lifetime worth of their clothes this morning," her sister explains as she crosses her arms against her own troublesome chest. "Since you're as stubborn as a mule and insisted on doing this, we're all gonna butt in with as much help as we can."

Nami cracks an appreciative smile. "I know you want me to fulfill my dream, Nojiko. But you and I both know that neither of us can truly go about our goals unless Gen-san and the town are in good shape. So let's do our best, ne?"

Nojiko cocks her head in mild awe.

"Always selfless, always putting the lives of others before your own…" she smiles, "You never change, Nami."

…

The somewhat rickety car belonging to her friend Zoro screeches to a halt in front of the entrance to the town's local health center, _Donquixote Hospital_. Nami, nibbling the insides of her cheeks in sheer anxiousness, unbuckles her seat belt. The sight of the hospital kicks her in the stomach as if saying _'This is it. It's either now or never. Screw up and you'll be in deep shit'._

"Explain this to me again if you will," Zoro requests in a bitter tone, interrupting her not-so-optimistic train of thought. "You could've applied for the job as a girl. You look like a homeless child with that shaggy short hair, even _I_ pity you. Why the hell are you dressed up as some douche kid?"

An impatient sigh escapes the cartographer's parted lips. "First off, I don't see why you're so pissed off. I'm the one arriving late on my first day of work because of your unbelievably crappy sense of direction! And to answer your question, it's because this country pays women like _shit_ , Zoro, as you are well aware of."

His brow twitches in response as he says, "Might as well steal the money you need, then. Why bother, huh? Not to mention you're making me go through the trouble of getting you to this damn place every day, so I don't wanna hear anything about my sense of direction from you, witch."

Ignoring his crude remark, Nami lies, saying,"By now you should know that I don't want to go back to stealing."

 _Of course_ she would rather steal a couple hundred thousand belis from some wealthy family. But, as much as she hates admitting it, robbery is something she knows she has to step away from. She did, after all, get imprisoned for roughly two months after the Arlong event, as they had found all the money she had been stealing for nearly eight years of her life- it is a miracle she wasn't imprisoned any time sooner. However, once the situation was explained, cleared up, and Arlong was thrown behind bars until the end of time somewhere in the infamous prison of Impel Down, Nami was eventually released.

So, to conclude her state of affairs, she has been trying her utmost best to lay off the theft, as hard as it may seem. After her town was freed from the restrictive, unjust rule of Arlong and his bunch of hooligans, and the money was-this she found somewhat unreasonable- taken by the government and military force, her town was flat broke. Perhaps the country's government locked away the bad guy, but they sure as hell weren't of any help after that.

Therefore Nojiko, with the help of the townspeople, began selling large quantities of their tangerines, along with preparing limitless jars of tangerine sauce. Gen-san not only works as the mayor of their little town, but he also started working in a small carpentry shop to help invest with the money. This, including the innumerable and countless helping hands of the villagers, still didn't seem like quite enough-they had also taken loans from the government at the beginning, to help steady the state of the town after its eight year dilemma.

Thus Nami was lost, to some extent, as she couldn't find a job within her area of expertise-and when she did, the wage was so low it would be of little to no help to her town- which then made it pointless. That's when her savior came into the picture- her little doctor friend, Chopper. He works in an outpatient clinic at the _Donquixote Hospital_ : the most sophisticated, high-class hospital in the country-and to put it simply, he is working as her string puller.

Nami can't seem to fathom how high nurses are paid there, much less imagine the wage of a full pledged doctor. Thus, she wound up spending ten hours a day-if not more- in the library studying, ten hours with Chopper, practicing to apply for a temporary job as a nurse, and a spare four hours to catch up with her sleep- for roughly three to four months.

Long story short, Nami is currently an amateur 'male nurse', with a forged nurse degree, a false ID, and awfully dark circles under her previously crisp eyes.

Or, more plainly put, she is a criminal.

But hey, if the government refuses to do shit about the state of her town, who are they to tell her she can't work as a male? She deserves just as much appreciation and money as any man.

Nami sighs.

"Things will be fine," she finally states, more to herself than to the grumpy man seated next to her. Zoro detects how frayed her nerves are and, while in typical occasions prefers to avoid any type of comforting strategies, gives her hair a rough tousle.

"Show'em who's boss, _lad,_ " he says.

Nami releases an irked huff and pushes the car door open. "Get lost."

With that, she slams the door of the car and turns to face the hospital. Her eyes travel down her body, ensuring that none of her feminine traits are exposed or in any way evident. She's undeniably aware of how powerless she is in terms of hiding her womanly features, but hopes the scowl Zoro took the time to coach her how to pull off will get her by.

For a while, at least.

Taking a deep lungful of air, she shoves her hands into the pockets of her pants (something she noted many guys doing), slumps her head, and takes spacish steps towards the building.

The overpowering smell of disinfectant slaps her in the face as she enters the hospital. Nurses and doctors race from one side of the lobby to the other, running up stairs and frantically pushing elevator buttons. The sounds of miserable coughing, sneezing and childlike cries fill the reception area, along with the tedious echo of a ringing phone. Nami scurries towards the receptionist, who seems to be busy taking calls and jotting down notes. With a harsh clear of her throat and, using her practiced male-voice, Nami leans over the counter. "Excuse me."

The receptionist scarcely acknowledges her, and regards her with a dismissive wave before returning to her work. Nami's most common feeling of irritation begins to well up in her chest before she tries again. "I'm here to apply for the open nurse-position."

Hearing this, the receptionist lifts her head. Her keen yellow eyes bore into Nami, causing her to flinch. She has lengthy green hair which is neatly pulled back in a sleek high bun. Her features are sharp and somewhat intimidating. Within a split second, she hangs up the phone, sets her notes down and gives Nami her entire attention. Her lips curl into a clever smile.

"My…" she purrs, "what a cute looking boy you are."

Nami returns the flatter with an uncertain blink. She's unquestionably used to receiving compliments, or more specifically, flirtatious commentary, but getting them in her male-form by a woman gives her an uneasy feeling in her guts. She immediately replies with what she likes to call a 'Zoro retort'. "Tch, don't call me cute."

The receptionist laughs melodiously, "I assume you're the boy Doctor Chopper wants us to consider hiring."

Nami nods.

"Your name, please?" the receptionist asks, more or less testing her.

"Ah, it's Na-" Nami pauses, feeling a wave of panic erupt in her throat. Wait…what's the fake name they chose for her?

The receptionist raises her eyebrows. "I'm sorry?"

"N-Naji!" Nami blurts out, silently praying she didn't get it wrong. "My name's Naji."

"Doctor Chopper has already handed in your required papers, so if you'll follow me…Naji-kun," she says, getting up from her chair and leading the way towards the elevator. "All you need now is the approval of your assigned doctor."

The smile gracing the receptionist's lips arouses a nervous feeling in Nami's guts, as do the occasional side glances she flashes her as they walk across the lobby. In fact, the whole aura of the hospital makes her feel edgy and somewhat anxious. The sounds of the receptionist's heels echo throughout the building as they, at last, approach the office belonging to her assigned doctor.

A broad, suited man however, blocks their way and forces them to a sharp halt. Nami begins to feel rather irritated, not wanting to delay the job any longer. She notes his wrinkled blazer, and his two pocket-stuffed hands. His shoulders hunch awkwardly; down his cheeks run two crimson lines and his long, auburn hair is combed back and plastered down with a sickening amount of gel, making it look as if it has been dunked into a five-foot bucket of oil.

"Good afternoon, Diamante-sama," the receptionist greets, not bothering to introduce Nami.

"Ah, Monet," he replies, his voice hoarse. His eyes skip the receptionist and, by doing so, rest on Nami instead, who remains wary of him but doesn't dare waver. "Who's this?"

"Yet another new-comer, Diamante-sama," explains Monet with a knowing huff, "I'm only shocked it's a boy this time, and not some cliché skank."

Nami remains quiet, although a tad puzzled.

"Speaking of which," Diamante remarks sneeringly, "Traffy's dealing with one of those in his office as we speak."

"Oh?"

 _Traffy?_ Nami questions in silence, looking back and forth between Monet and the apprehensive looking man. She certainly doesn't appreciate the way the receptionist spoke of her but, that reflection immediately dismisses itself as her ears ring with the sound of a sobbing woman only a few feet away from where she stands. The voice grows louder as the door to an office flings open and out bursts a fragile, yet charming looking lady with tears drenching her delicate eyes. Her outfit tells Nami she is a nurse.

"Law, you heartless prick!" she sputters, lifting her already-too-revealing skirt and dashing down the hallway, her striking blonde hair fluttering behind her.

Nami's eyebrows rise in surprise, and, forgetting the manners Nojiko so thoroughly reminded her of, she sputters, "The hell?"

The receptionist, with her all-knowing smile, ignores Nami and beckons for her to follow her towards the said office.

They are immediately met in the doorway by a tall, slender man leaning against the door frame. Nami finds herself arching an eyebrow and tracing her eyes up his faultlessly shaped figure, flattered by a long, white coat. He crosses his legs in a rather undoctorly manner and raises his hat-bearing head to face them. His dark facial hair adequately frames his masculine face, despite its messy demeanor, along with his somewhat droopy gray eyes that possess inexplicable, searing attractiveness to them that compel Nami's stomach to flip in apprehension.

His lips twist into a devilish smirk, electing panic within the cartographer before he waves his hand as a welcoming gesture to his office, "Next."

* * *

 **Between all the stories I've posted on this site, this will be the first one that I bothered starting an outline for c8 It felt too dangerous not to have at least a rough sketch of what I want to do with this before posting the first chapter.** **The romance and drama will be pretty gradual, especially since I'm beginning this with them not knowing each other. SO,** **if my calculations aren't totally off, this shouldn't wind up in ruins.**

 **A few things I want to point out: Devil fruits still exist in this setting and aren't considered too unusual, so do Fishmen, and lastly…this is most likely unnecessary, but I feel the need to point it out anyway; things aren't always going to be happy :)**

 **That is all, THANK YOU 8D!**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2**_

Impatiently, and with what seems like mild contempt, the surgeon slams the door shut in the receptionist's face and turns to look at the wary cartographer. Nami senses her insides churn at the unfriendliness carved into his eyes, wondering if she should be the first to initiate the inevitable conversation. The sound of the ticking wall clock intensifies her already frayed nerves and causes a single bead of sweat to trickle down her forehead and noisily drop onto the ceramic floor. She watches the surgeon's lips tug into a smirk as he loosens his grip on the doorknob and turns his body around to face her.

"What is your purpose here?" he asks, taking her slightly by surprise.

Nami laces her eyebrows and mulls over his question. Deep down, she doesn't truly care for the job. It has never been, and never will be her passion to be a nurse. And though she is and has been familiar with the concept of lying all her life, Nami finds herself replying to his question with the most truthful answer.

"I need the money."

A bemused glimmer flickers in his eyes. "I dare ask what you need the money for?"

Nami huffs in disbelief, both irritated and impressed at his audacity. She cocks her thin eyebrow and crosses her arms, fully prepared to protect her violated privacy. "With all _due_ respect, it's absolutely none of your business, Doc."

"Ah, I suppose it isn't."

With one cautious step, he is able to reach Nami and nearly overwhelm her with his bizarre height. She manages to stay put, determined not to be phased by it. "And why do you think," he asks, giving her body a brief look-over, "I would accept someone as little and naive looking as you to become my nurse?"

Nami releases a vexed laugh. "Funny, I was asking myself a similar question. Why would I want to become the nurse of a downright prick who makes girls cry?" she finds herself retorting, surprising both herself and the surgeon standing steadily across from her.

He adjusts his hat to look at her more clearly then, with a small chuckle, says, "Ah…now _this_ is a change."

"Eh?"

"All people who have sought this position so far were…well, mildly put, nothing more than needy women," he explains coolly. "It's quite the satisfying change to meet someone who has motives driven by something other than mere lust."

Nami arches her eyebrows, slightly taken aback by his words. And though she now understands why he rejected the blonde woman, and what appear to be many other women as well, that does not explain why he was so quick to judge her experience and skill from her appearance. She is certainly aware of her short height compared to him – though she is quite happy with her stature-, her unprofessionally cut hair, along with the baggy wardrobe she is forced to wear, but that is by no means a sign that she can't be a reliable nurse.

Well, deep down, she is more than aware of her inexperience, but that is beyond the point, she decides.

Crossing her arms against her relatively well hidden chest, Nami flashes him a confident smile. "Then I believe I'm the perfect pick, wouldn't you say? If that's what you're worrying about, put your mind at ease. Last time I checked, I was a straight guy."

She draws in a deep breath and, while maintaining a good distance from him, looks into his eyes and holds out her hand for a handshake. "I'm Naji, the best nurse you could ever hope to employ. So, hire me!"

His wary eyes widen ever so slightly at her introduction before he guides them from the heart of her eyes down to the tip of her toes, making Nami feel vulnerable; caught. Her bumps had better be in place.

"I'm Trafalgar Law," he finally says, sliding his hand into hers. A thoughtful smile begins to grace his lips as he averts his eyes from her body and brings them up to her anxious eyes. "I'm sure we're going to have a pleasant time working together, Naji-ya."

* * *

"That man…he irritated the absolute _crap_ out of me!"

Nami slams Zoro's car door shut and, not bothering to snap on her seatbelt, crosses her arms and props her legs against the glove compartment as an expression of pure grumpiness blooms on her childish features. Her encounter with the man she is to be calling her _senior_ hasnot only elected a blazing fire within her at his incoherent attitude, but has given her more than a few doubts towards her supposedly perfectly thought out plan _._

Zoro backs out of the hospital driveway and onto the street. "Beer?"

….

"Seconds!" she shouts to the bartender, slamming her ridiculously colossal and now empty mug against the counter. She turns to Zoro, who's chugging down his own drink, and cries, "For crying out _loud_ , why the hell did I get this damned job?!"

"Here she goes," her friend mumbles upon noting her pink tinted cheeks.

"Do you realize how much time it took for me to gain the knowledge I have now? _Do you?!_ And for what?!" she snaps, angrily kicking a random man seated next to her. Zoro's glower, however, compels the drunken man to back off before he has the chance to fire back at the troublesome copper-head wailing in complaint beside him.

"Your drink is here," Zoro nods his head towards her cup.

"What does he do?!" she continues, ignoring him and flailing her mug in absolute exasperation. "He leaves me sitting in that office of his for _six_ hours while he goes and does surgery on his own! What am I to that man, a blazing manikin?!"

"Well, you're no decent nurse," Zoro mutters under his breath.

Nami snaps her head towards him. "What did you say?!"

"Look, if you get your weekly paycheck, I don't see why you're nagging."

"I busted my sorry ass trying to get this job, that is _not_ gonna go to waste! Oh, and don't get me started on how he…"

….

To say the least, Nami awakens the next morning in a slight haze.

"Ne, Usopp," she says whilst padding down her morning hair-she wasn't expecting that short hair would be not one, not two, but three times more troublesome to deal with than her longer hair; it never stays in place, that annoying bundle of orange chaos!

 _Perhaps borrowing gel from Sanji would tame it…_

"Ah…" Usopp replies absentmindedly as he tinkers with a little toy car.

"I really appreciate you letting me stay here while I work at the hospital"

An abnormally big yawn makes its way up her face as she pours citrus juice into an emptied water bottle. Usopp's house, among all her friends', is not only the closest to her work place, but the most spacious, not too surprisingly; as he needs a little more than just a condo for his own job as a craftsman. And to her relief, he is more than willing to let her stay there until she finishes her job.

Usopp's mouth curves into a broad smile. "Anything for a friend, Nami!"

….

It would be an understatement to say that the sight of gruesome blood drenching a little boy's fragile body as he lies on a stretcher and gets frantically carried by dozens of nurses across the hallway, with his mother hovering over him, weeping desperately, and his father crying for the nurses to save him erupts downright fright in Nami's guts and causes her to drop her bag, dash towards the closest bathroom, and kneel pitifully over the toilet. She clamps her fist against her mouth and forces the nausea down; her last wish is to go through the torturous feeling of throwing up.

When she finally gathers her wits and steps out to wash her hands, Nami takes a moment to stare at her reflection.

Here she is, on only the second day of her job, running away from a sight that she knows not only made her sick to her stomach and triggered memories she never wanted to recall, but one that she is to be dealing with from now on forth. If she can't as much as tolerate the sight of blood a mile away from view, what on earth was she thinking, applying for a job as a nurse? Someone who not only witnesses blood, but deals with it physically.

"God dammit Nami, get a grip…" she snaps at her reflection, "This was nothing more than a moment of weakness. You need the money, and this is your best bet."

With a pat of her hair and a quick fluff of her shirt to ensure her two bumps stay where they are: out of sight, Nami steps away from the sink and pushes the door of the bathroom open, only to crash into someone's head on her way out. She slams her palm to her forehead and releases a pained gasp.

"Ow!" the girl opposite of her winces in response. Upon opening her eyes and dropping her hand to her side, Nami notes the girl has pale blonde hair that looks vaguely familiar, and wears a nurse uniform so girly she can't help but feel a twinge of jealousy. Her soon to be picked out uniform will be blue, baggy and on the whole, boring as opposed to the girls uniforms, which are pink, fitted, and all in all, satisfyingly decent.

She momentarily puts the thought aside as the girl finally opens her tightly shut eyes and looks up at her. Nami's eyebrow lifts in confusion as she watches the girl's face turn from slightly puzzled to absolutely horror-struck.

"P-P-P…" she begins to stammer, before finally she cries out, " _Pervert!_ "

Nami feels her throat practically burst in panic as realization dawns on her. She was so distressed over the gory sight she witnessed that she paid no mind to what bathroom she rushed into. Filled with dread, Nami turns her head towards the bathroom sign and mentally slaps herself as she notices the skirt-bearing figure on the door.

Before she has the chance to stop and think of a valid excuse, or perhaps a way out without saying a word, her doctor appears from a hallway corner and, with his ill-omened smirk, leisurely makes his way towards the scene.

"Miss Kaya, I apologize for my nurse's shameful behavior," is what he says to the blond. He eyes Nami carefully, an amused hue glimmering in his murky eyes, "excuse us."

The minor commotion quickly subsides as he guides her away from the girl she now understands was Usopp's childhood friend; not having been aware that she works at the same hospital Chopper does. She releases a depleted breath, silently thanking the heavens for her luck, and that she is temporarily unrecognized. The cologne Sanji lent her seems to be doing its job. At arriving and eventually entering their office, Nami squirms away from her doctor's touch and turns to face him with a lace of her eyebrows and a grit of her small, angry fists.

" _You!_ " she hisses accusingly, not bothering to explain her earlier ordeal. "Why did you bother hiring me if you weren't going to need my help?!"

Perhaps she should be feeling relieved that the surgeon hasn't asked her to do things beyond her line of expertise, which is something she was afraid of before starting the job, but she finds herself unable to feel anything but frustration at him taking her so lightly.

Law's eyebrow twitches in response.

"If I'm not mistaken, you are here for the money. And as promised, you will receive it. So until the time I'm in dire need of you, which…" he reasons conceitedly, "…will, I assure you, never be the case, your only job is to follow my orders. And my current order is for you to allow me to do my part of the job, and stay out of the way until I say otherwise."

Feeling her blood sweltering in anger at his outrageous attitude, Nami forces down the urge to rip her fake degree in thousands of shreds and storm out of the office away from this man and the lie she has trapped herself in. She decides, however, after taking a moment to settle her emotions, not to fritter away the time and effort Chopper spent teaching and assisting her into getting the job.

Briefly putting her retort to the back of her mind, Nami watches the surgeon intently as he slides towards the tediously ringing phone on his desk and, with a mildly irked gaze, picks it up. His grip on the phone tightens, she observes, the longer he listens to whoever is speaking on the other end. "That won't be possible. My schedule is full."

As the person on the other end responds, he twitches, and a look of pure contempt rests in the heart of his eyes. He slams the receiver down and, hardly granting her a glimpse, takes long strides towards the office door. Pausing momentarily, he looks back at an ill-tempered Nami and, as if to satisfy her need of an assigned job, says, "Staple the papers on my desk."

"Are you kidding m-"

He slams the door shut after him, leaving Nami in a rather exasperated state of being. The loud, almost irksome ticking of the wall-clock causes Nami to rub her temples, take a deep breath, and eventually storm out the door after him. No way is she going to be left behind to staple a –oh look, they're already stapled, too- stack of useless sheets of paper.

Her enraged stomping halts as she approaches the receptionist's desk and asks, "Excuse me, Dr. Trafalgar just received a call to go perform an operation. What floor did he head to?"

The receptionist, Monet, lifts her eyes and smiles at Nami. "Do excuse Dr. Trafalgar, Naji-kun. He tends to like to work on his own, but I'm sure he'll come around. He's currently headed to the ninth floor."

Nami thanks her but remains guarded, unable to ignore the peculiar aura she receives from her each time they converse. As she steps into the elevator and presses the ninth floor button, the cartographer finally realizes that it is in fact the luxury ward. Her stomach beings to churn, and gradually manages to completely morph itself into a nerve-wrecking knot of sheer distress. She wasn't expecting to be quite this anxious, but as the lift finally reaches the ninth floor, Nami finds herself feeling nothing but determination, and the deep urge to prove herself.

The doors slide open and she steps out, taking a minute to scan the lobby for her doctor. For a hospital, it seems too quiet; too empty, she notes as she takes in the lack of patients. Temporarily stashing that thought in the back of her mind, Nami heads to the receptionist, who appears to detect her position and so, with his blond hair and wacky high heels, he leads her in the right direction once understanding she is Law's nurse.

"Say hello to Traffy for me!" he sings out with a shrill giggle, which, much to Nami's dismay, freaks the absolute wits out of her. Though, with a hop skip and a jump, she reaches the room number the receptionist led her to and, after a minute of drawing in shaky breaths, giving herself mental encouragements and a couple of reprimands to get her to collect herself, Nami pushes the door open and, as still as a mouse, sneaks into the room.

The room, she notes, is completely dark aside from the piercing lamp shining onto a small, green-haired girl's body lying in the middle it, with the surgeon cautiously hovering over her. And despite the distance, Nami can see the girl's injury; a deeply cut wound in her right arm. The minute she decides to finally approach him and offer help, he does something slightly out of the ordinary, causing her to stick to the wall and observe him instead. She laces her thin eyebrows as her eyes watch his hand gently linger over the little girl's body before he whispers, " _Room_."

Nami holds back a small gasp as a thin-layered film forming from the surgeon's palm expands and surrounds the entire room, along with everything within it.

 _'Devil fruit?'_ she questions silently.

Unfortunately, and despite her attempts to get a closer look, she is unable to see what he's doing. But she does notice, and though the thought of it irks her, that he certainly seems capable of performing an operation without anyone else's interference. She confirms it when he finally steps away from the girl, disengages what he calls a _Room,_ and Nami can see the girl's previously gashed arm flawlessly sewed up. And the time it took him to finish was exceptionally short.

Nami finally snaps her staring gaze away from the girl and up to the surgeon's face, who she dreadfully understands is now completely aware of her presence. Once disposing of his plastic gloves, he cocks a mildly curious eyebrow and makes his way towards the cartographer.

"If it isn't my obstinate nurse," he greets, eyeing her inquiringly as he snaps on the overhead lights. In response, Nami rests her hands on her waist; a movement she often forgets compliments the shape of her figure.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe nurses are assigned to assist doctors with their patients. Not stay behind in their offices and staple already stapled stacks of paper, Dr. Trafalgar," she snaps, getting frustrated all over again. "It doesn't matter that my main objective here is to make money. Doc, I will _not_ agree to lounge about while you save lives on your own!"

The surgeon pauses, gives the Nami a long, hard stare, then twists the doorknob, opens the door and steps out.

With a roll of her eyes, she follows him out, struggling slightly to keep up with him as he takes long strides across the quiet, magnificently lavish hallways. Nami nearly crashes into his back as he skids to a halt in front of the reception desk. She snaps her head up to protest, but instead feels a sea of anxiety flowing into the pits of her guts as the surgeon snaps his head towards the blond receptionist and glowers at him with his two, terrifyingly intense, gray orbs.

"Tell your pink bastard never to ask me to do such work. And while you're at it, do remind him that his pathetic excuse of a dream rests in my hands."

* * *

The grief-stricken moan emanating from the hell they call a prison produces a low, sickeningly vile laugh from the formal nobleman, Donquixote Doflamingo. His ritzy pink feather coat drags across the floor as he, with every ounce of leisure, paces back and forth in front of the thick barred cell. The sound of his echoing footsteps comes to an end as he bends down and, with a grin as wicked as the devil's, tauntingly asks, "Is my little brother holding up?"

Amidst a fit of violent coughing, the cuffed blonde across him replies, "Doflamingo…release Law and let him be. Your delusional dream of becoming immortal will bring nothing but torment and suffering on this world!"

"Ah…" Doflamingo replies, the corners of his lips curling into a foul grin, "whoever gave you the idea that that isn't exactly what I want?"

His stare penetrates through his sunglasses and into the infuriated eyes of his younger brother, whose arms are mercilessly shackled to the wall. The laugh escaping his gritted teeth sounds all the more deafening within the deadly silence they stand in. "Don't die now, Rosinante. You're the keystone, after all."

* * *

 **Things will eventually begin to unveil themselves 0:]] BUT, for now, THANK YOU FOR THE SUPPORT, and until next time 8D!**


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter 3**_

"Nami!" a small squeal cuts through the cartographer's train of thoughts as she steps out of the hospital's main entrance. The niggling thoughts previously occupying her mind dissolve as she whirls around to see Chopper skipping happily towards her. A grin quickly blossoms on her lips as she bends down and spreads her palms out, inviting him to jump into her arms, to which he gleefully obliged.

"Chopper, you're back!" she exclaims, laughing as she cradles the little guy and gives his blue nose a soft poke. "How's Kureha-san?"

After giggling and bashfully covering his face with his hooves, Chopper looks up at her. "She attacked me with knives when I first arrived… but otherwise, I had a really nice time with Doctorine!"

At his report, Nami rolls her eyes. The first time they met Doctorine, her first impression of her was how skilled a doctor she was. That is, until she started chasing after both Luffy and Sanji with heavily sharpened kitchen knives. Nami was relatively okay with that, she had done it a few times herself, but when she started flailing them at someone as petite and innocent as Chopper, she knew something was unquestionably off about her. Nevertheless, she knows how much Chopper cherishes and admires her, not to mention the time she took care of her when a stubborn bug bit her back when she and her friends decided to be adventurous and go on a trip to some tropical island, so she learned to respect her as well.

With a sigh, she puts Chopper down and regards him with a gentle pat on his hat. "Well, I'm glad you're back, Chopper. It'll be nice to have someone agreeable in this damn hospital…"

Cocking his head, he replies in panic, "You don't like it here?!"

"No no! I'm really grateful! It's just …" she narrows her eyes towards the door before crossing her arms and huffing in aggravation. She is well aware that telling Chopper about her suspicions and silent worries concerning her doctor, along with the strange encounters she has had with him will only trigger unnecessary concerns in the little guy. She herself isn't quite sure what it is that has been nagging at the back of her mind since her arrival, but she does know talking about it will do no good, not with how vague everything remains.

Deciding to stay hushed about it, for the time being at least, Nami replaces the faint creases that appeared on her forehead with a broad smile and a humorous wink.

"Welcome home, Chopper! Once you have a chance, come by Usopp's. He misses you, I'm sure."

That seems to ease the little doctor's tension. He nods eagerly, "I will, I will!"

...

The surgeon's most detested, patient-quivering aspects of his life include slow coffee machines, exceedingly bubbly humans, and most importantly, Eustass Kid. Conveniently enough, said man barges drunkenly through Law's apartment door whilst howling at the top of his lungs something along the lines of _'I swear to God my lips are naturally this dark, you darn shit heads!'_

Law, managing to stay put as his godforsaken roommate enters and nearly smashes the door shut after him, releases a vexed sigh and turns to face him. "Get yourself together, Eustass-ya. I don't want to have to clean up after your sorry ass every blazing night."

Kid waves his hand dismissively, which pushes the surgeon's patience almost to the snapping point. Soon after he drags his heavy legs towards the couch settled at the edge of the room, however, the redhead begins to doze off. But, much to Law's downright dismay, that doesn't rap up his night. Before Kid falls into the deep sleep he very evidently is in desperate need of after a long night of reckless drinking with his close acquaintance, Killer, he rakes his scarred fingers through his untamed ruby hair and pushes himself up to look at the surgeon.

"Oi, Trafalgar."

Law merely grunts in response.

"..How much time do you have left?" he inquires coldly, fully alert of the hardened look Law's face builds at hearing his question.

"You don't need to know that," Law flatly replies.

"I will blow that full-of-crap head of yours off of your body if you don't answer me right now, how much time do you have left until Doflamingo hunts you down to do that damn surgery?"

His words earn a mild chuckle from the surgeon, along with a peeved puff of air from his nostrils. "I won't give him a chance to. Have I not made that clear to you, Eustass-ya?"

As if his sobriety was simply momentary, the redhead's stern eyes glaze over and turn drowsy. A belch, followed by a disturbingly loud laugh escapes Kid as he pushes himself off the couch and hobbles towards the surgeon, who has covered his eyes in attempt to block off his roommate's drunken trauma.

"So," he jests, elbowing Law in the stomach. His wobbling head tells the surgeon how completely hung over he is. "I heard you got yourself a nurse. Is it a chick? Is she hot?"

Law sighs impatiently.

"Yes, it is a girl. Her looks are of no importance to me, especially since she is posing as a man," he finds himself explaining the situation, sure that talking to a drunk man, who is to eventually forget what is said to him is much easier than talking to one who is sober; especially when he isn't anticipating a useful reply, or too many unnecessary inquiries.

"Huh?! Why'd ya hire her, then?"

"The hospital has been nagging me to hire a nurse. Unlike every woman who has tried for the job, given her circumstances, she is the only one I'm trusting to maintain a distance from both me and my goals."

Her situation certainly sparks the surgeon's interest, but the fact remains that he does not care enough to delve into the depths of why this woman is dressing as a man; it is absolutely none of his business, as his issues are none of hers. As long as she doesn't get in the way of his objectives, she is fit for the job.

…

"So I'm assuming you're a devil-fruit user?" Nami inquires once arriving at the office next morning, late again, due to a certain green headed dork. Fiddling with a pen in her hand, she stares inquisitively at the surgeon seated comfortably at his desk. She is determined to learn more about what she encountered the day before, but Law remains unruffled by her frank statement as he steers his eyes up to look at her.

"Correct assumption."

She then crosses her arms and leans against the wall, biting her lower lip curiously. "And it's used for medical purposes?"

"That's right. It has other advantages as well," he replies, holding up his hand in the same manner he did the day before. He forms the film around them, and Nami squints in mild confusion as he flicks his hand and whispers, " _Shambles_."

Standing there, puzzled, Nami doesn't notice what the surgeon did until she realizes that the previously light weight in her hand has been replaced by something both heavier and more bulky. At that, she snaps her vision towards the new object in her hand: a stapler. Whether she feels deeply annoyed at the reference he is clearly making, or amazed at his ability, Nami can't be sure, but she isn't allowed the chance to make up her mind as an enthusiastic knock at the door breaks her train of thoughts and causes her to push away from the wall.

"Sorry for the intrusion!" chimes in an eager voice as the door opens and steps in two men; one wearing a pink beanie, the other wearing a hat printed with the word _Penguin_ right in the center of it. They waltz into the room past Nami, then all-too-familiarly plunk down onto the two chairs rested at the front of the surgeon's desk.

"Afternoon, Law-san!" they greet in unison.

Nami observes the surgeon's expression; slightly worn out but not at all displeased or irritated, much to her amusement. He sits back in his chair and adjusts his fur-hat before looking up at the men. "What are you two doing here?"

"Duh-we're here so you could introduce us to your new nurse!" the one with the broad _'Penguin'_ cap reasons, whirling around and almost stumbling on his own two feet the moment he lays his eyes on Nami more visibly. A mild hint of a blush creeps up his cheeks as he grabs his friend by the shoulder and stammers, "S-So cute…"

Nami releases a depleted sigh and drops her face to the palm of her hand. _'So much for looking masculine.'_

"Oi…Shachi," he whispers weakly, "…I think I might be gay."

His friend lets loose a nervous laugh before reaching out to Nami with a guiltless hand and saying, "Don't mind him, Naji-chan. His name is Penguin, and I'm Shachi. We're old friends of Law-san!"

"You shouldn't be hiding such adorable nurses from us, Law-san!" Penguin complains as he straightens his posture and regards Nami with a far too low bow. "Good to meet you, Naji-chan!"

Still feeling a tad weird about her false name, Nami cracks a half smile and ushers him to lift his head. She can tell the man is a little bit of a hopeless romantic, but guesses he means no harm. "No need to be that forma-"

"Naji-ya," Law interrupts, eyeing his two friends warily. He shifts in his chair. "Get me my file of schedules from Monet. And close the door after you."

Nami is no idiot.

She is fully aware that the surgeon's request – or order, for that matter- was for the plain intention of kicking her out of the office. By no means is she feeling offended by it, in fact, she tends to respect people's privacies, but that doesn't stop her inevitable curiosity from winning the battle. As soon she gets a hold of his file, and as softly as she possibly can, Nami sticks her ear to the office door, holds her breath and listens. At the beginning, she hears nothing, only the monotonous sound of phones ringing in the lobby and the occasional whispers of other doctors and nurses as they pass her by and flash her skeptical glances. Finally, however, they begin to speak.

"We've figured out more routs," Shachi explains, his words followed by a clear of his throat. "Eustass-san will have it all ready in the next few days."

"Ah…good."

"But Law-san, we…"

A gentle silence ensues.

"We don't want you going alone this time. Penguin and I will come along," Shachi finally affirms.

"I've already gone over thi-"

"We won't take no for an answer!" they insist in harmony, once again.

Nami feels a small smile tow at her lips; their determined words warmly reminding her of one of her own cherished friends, Luffy, and how stubborn he was when she claimed she was in no need of his help. But she remains ignorant of what they speak about, and she finds herself, Nami frowns at the thought, somewhat disappointed. Her train of thoughts by then has distracted her from the ongoing conversation, so she assumes it to be a relatively okay time to 'be back', after realizing their talk no longer involves anything secretive. With a mild straightening of her back, she gives the door a couple of casual knocks before twisting the door knob and pushing it open.

"I would imagine bringing a file shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes, Naji-ya," the surgeon scolds gently as she steps in. Nami slams the door shut after her and, after passing a bashful Penguin and receiving a nod of acknowledgement from Shachi, she sets the file down on his desk and feigns a sigh.

"Really, what _are_ you gonna do with me?" she asks, regarding him with a miniature smile. Sitting back in his chair, Law intertwines his fingers together and studies her carefully. Despite the impatience he has been causing her, Nami _is_ his nurse, and she does want to be useful, one way or another. And that doesn't count the petty paperwork he has been asking her to do as pastime. As she opens her mouth to demand serious work, however, he holds up his hand in interjection and says, "My first operation is at six thirty tomorrow morning; so I expect you to be here by no later than six. No more being tardy, Naji-ya. Do I make myself clear?"

Releasing an indignant huff, Nami drops a hand to her waist and, after giving Penguin a moment to collect himself and repeatedly demand Shachi to assure him he is not in fact gay, she flashes her doctor a confident smirk . "About time you took me seriously!"

* * *

The air is eerier than usual, Nami subtly notes as she rubs her chilly hands and waits for the hospital doors to slide open. Upon entering, she realizes that it isn't merely the air that appears to be uncanny, but the smile across Monet's face seems a little less friendly than normal, and a lot more alarmingly impish. She walks past her, expecting the daily _'Good morning, Naji-kun'_ but is mildly surprised to be ignored. Deciding not to think deeply into it; having too much on her mind to begin with, she turns around at the corner leading to the surgeon's office, taking a moment to straighten her shapeless uniform, shoulder her messenger bag and beam in pride. She is right on time.

Half way there, Nami hears the door of his office creak open, and instead of the figure of her doctor, an inexplicably tall, blonde man steps out instead. As if on cue, Nami's instincts, for the third and hardest time that morning, kick in and force her to tighten her grip on her shoulder strap in unexplainable defense. She can't help but receive excessive threat signals from the man, for whatever reason. Her dilated eyes trace up his massive body, twitch at taking in his absurdly built chest, and eventually settle at his sickening leer. He barely grants her a glimpse as he slips his hands into his slacks and walks right past her; his pink feather coat barely brushing across her arm and sending a shock wave up her spine. She watches him warily from the corners of her eyes as he finally disappears around the corner. With an uneasy sigh, Nami shakes her head clear and walks the rest of the way to the office. She is merely panicky that morning, she convinces herself, there is absolutely nothing to be afraid of. As she twists the doorknob and steps in, she expects to be greeted by either a direct command by the surgeon, or perhaps a scolding for having walked in a minute late, but she is surprised to be welcomed by neither, and instead complete silence as he sits at his desk, one hand lingering over his eyes, while the other harshly grips what seems to be a photograph.

Setting her messenger bag on the floor, Nami takes a step towards the desk. She contemplates drawing closer, but finally decides otherwise upon noticing his twitch at hearing her footstep. With a gentle clear of her throat, she says, "Erm…Dr. Trafalgar-"

A sharp pain shoots through her chest, cutting her sentence short and forcing her to grab onto the chair before her for support. Curses flock her mind as she wheezes in pain and silently prays she doesn't get the surgeon's attention. Her hopes burn to ashes, however, as he drops his hand from his face, peers up and takes in her condition. He slips his photograph into his coat pocket and makes his way around the desk, then silently places his hand on her back and directs her towards the back of the office; where a small check-up room lies. Nami almost skids to a halt; a surge of panic clumping in her throat as she reflects on the likely reason behind her pain. Clamping her mouth shut in hope of preventing herself from letting loose any pained pants, she straightens her posture, forces a smile on her lips then turns to face him.

"What are you doing? I'm fine!" she insists, trying her utmost best to disregard the harsh throbbing of her upper body, along with the hallow eyes of the surgeon solemnly fixated on her. A small gasp escapes her as he succeeds in pushing her into the room and slamming the door shut after him, clearly not buying her words in the least.

"Lie down," he instructs, rolling up his coat sleeves and nodding briefly towards the bed settled at the corner of the room.

"I told you I'm perfectly fin-"

Another harsh sting pulsates through her torso, catching her off guard and this time with nothing to grab onto for support, Nami clasps her eyes shut and begins to lose her footing. But much to her relief, he reaches with his arm just in time to prevent her from having a direct fall to her face. He grabs her by her shoulders and, with a mildly irked _tch_ , pushes her gently onto the bed. The last thing she remembers before blacking out is the familiar sting of a needle in her right arm.

Nami wakes in a daze; her head pounding.

Impatiently, she waits for her eyes to adjust to the piercing overhead light. Her first detection is her now even breathing, along with the absence of pain in her chest. Her first instinct, however, is to fling the sheets of off herself, pull the collar of her shirt away from her neck, and peer down. She sighs in relief and falls back onto the bed, taking a moment to cover her eyes with the palm of her hand and calm down. Her chest is exactly as she left it. But she knows he must have done something to relieve her. She is almost certain that the cause of her pain goes back to how tightly she wraps her torso; Chopper warned her about it, several times, yet she somehow still neglected it.

"Baka," she scolds herself quietly.

She tries to convince herself that she remains unexposed, but something inside her tells her otherwise. Deciding not to lose herself in panic, Nami sits up once more, but then perks her ears the moment she hears an unfamiliar voice booming noisily outside the check-up room.

"Listen. Not that I give a flying fuck what happens to you, but having you go alone is a real pain in the ass. So make sure to go with Penguin and Shachi this time, ya hear?!"

"You brought the map, Eustass-ya. The last thing I need right now is a headache from your yapping, so do us both a favor and leave," counters Law's impatient tone of voice.

"Tch. Damn brat," the man spits, his response followed by loud trudging and a thunderous slam of the office door. Nami winces, and winds up losing herself in a cloud of contemplations as her eyes rest absently on the shut door of the check-up room. This is the second time she hears the mention of a map, and though it is absolutely none of her concern, she can't help but feel deeply curious. Her head falls back as she mulls over the option of getting her hands on the said map; just to give it a look over, nothing more, nothing less. The sound of a gently shutting drawer and a twist of a key bring her back to her current situation. Stopping her from thinking more into it, the door opens and Law steps in with an evidently put out gaze; Nami guesses it to be due to his encounter with whomever it was blowing off steam in the main office only seconds before. Upon noticing her body no longer lying in bed, he puts on a straight face and regards her with a nod.

"How are you feeling?" he asks.

"Ah…better," she replies, smiling uneasily and waiting for the inevitable; perhaps a _'Now that you're up, I have your pink slip ready. We don't accept frauds'_ , or a straight out _'You're fired. Get out.'_ Either way, she remains wary as she waits for some sort of comparable retort from him. Much to her pleasant surprise, however, he merely nods to her in affirmation.

"You've strained yourself," is all he says about the matter. He sticks a pen into his breast pocket and turns around. "Be cooperative and stay here until I get back. I have something I need to deliver."

She is barely given a moment to process the current happenings before he exits, leaving her mildly puzzled. With a frustrated sigh, Nami begins to fiddle with her bangs, finally deciding not to fret over it; whether he somehow managed to ease the pain without finding out and that he is in fact oblivious, or that he, for whatever reason, chose not to make a big deal of it, she doesn't know. Whichever it may be, he seems not to be troubled by it, and she still has the job; which is really all that matters to her. Stashing that matter in the back of her mind, Nami hops off the bed, snatches one of the surgeon's utensils and then, with a slightly mischievous smile, plunks down by his desk drawers and gets to tinkering with the locks. Her best guess is that the map is stored in one of them, and seeing how her doctor will be absent for the next few minutes, this is an ideal time to snoop.

Checking the door of the office periodically to ensure she doesn't get caught red-handed, Nami moves from drawer to drawer, getting slightly frustrated when all she finds is stacks of hospital-related documents. But once she hears the heavenly sound of a click from the lock of the last drawer and pulls it open, a shimmer of excitement makes its way up her face. She locates the map, unfolds it and begins to take in all its details and keys. Or, more accurately put, _look_ for the details and keys. Nami frowns.

"This is a terrible map," she mumbles, her shoulders slumping in disappointment. Everything about it is poor; the lines are sloppy, the font is barely decipherable, and the ink is smudged. Nevertheless, she has dealt with enough maps that she can make out most of what it says, and is able to recognize the majority of the places illustrated. Within the span of a couple of minutes, Nami manages to learn the map by heart, put it back where she found it, lock the drawers and go back to the check-up room just in time for the surgeon to return.

"Dr. Trafalgar," she addresses him once he enters the room, where she sits on the side of the bed and restlessly swinging her legs. She lifts her head from staring absently at her feet and looks at him, deciding not to question him over his earlier photo ordeal. She has trespassed enough that day. "Now that I'm up, what's my first task?"

Law looks up from a stack of papers in his hand and, after gazing briefly at her swaying legs; he settles his misty eyes on her. "You've been out of it all day, Naji-ya. Your work-time will be over in fifteen minutes."

Nami blinks, ignoring the irrational discomfiture she felt at his glance and steering her eyes towards the wall clock. It is as he says; her work-day is nearly over, and once again, she has done nothing to prove her skill, or her seriousness about the job. Let down in the way things turned out, she releases a dull sigh, and finally decides to take the short time she has left to say what she has in mind concerning the map. She opens her mouth to speak; but in place of her voice, a loud, oddly familiar voice rumbles from outside the office, howling, " _Nami!_ Where are you?!"

"You damn _moron_ , it's Naji! Don't screw things up!" another painfully recognizable voice replies angrily. Nami slaps her hand to her forehead; sure she is to be discovered if that hasn't already been done. Not a second later, her friends swarm into the office like a hoard of panicked buffalos.

"There you are!" Luffy exclaims happily upon spotting his friend and, ignoring the horrified surgeon standing by the door, skips towards Nami and plunks down on the bed right next to her. He places his hand on her forehead and asks, "Are you hurting? Are you sick like last time? Do you want meat?!"

Nami finds herself unable to feel irritable towards her friends; not with the concerned looks etched across their faces, and the overly concerned pout now pruning on Luffy's face. She smiles and waves her hand dismissively, "I'm fine, Luffy. I was a little worn out but I'm better now. You didn't have to make such a big deal out of this."

"Chopper called us and sounded pretty alarmed," Usopp explains, scratching his neck and pointing at Chopper, who has been hiding behind Zoro's legs in caution.

"I-I was worried…" he stammers in response.

Nami giggles, momentarily forgetting to put on her boy-act. "Thank you, Chopper."

"Ah, my dearest! To see you in such peak condition is a relief to my fragile heart!" cries out a rather theatrical Sanji.

"Well? Where's that doctor you keep jabbering to me about?" Zoro inquires once Sanji has controlled himself enough to bring to a halt to his swooning. In response, Nami flashes her green-haired friend both a panicked and fuming glare; he does not need to mention her temper sessions so openly. She then takes a moment to clear her throat, calming down.

"Behind you," she replies coolly. The group clears away to reveal a traumatized surgeon, who has been doing nothing but sending clear warning glares towards her. She winces, and with a mildly nervous laugh, slides off the bed and begins to usher her friends out, "Alright, group, time to depart."

" _Ehh?!_ But we just got here!" Luffy protests, wiggling away from her escorting hand and dashing towards her doctor whose expression, Nami agonizingly notes, has increased in bitterness. He pauses nearly a foot away from him, cocks his head and exclaims, "So _you're_ Dr. Torao!"

"Luffy…" Nami warns, clenching her fists and praying she can keep her temper under control. She cannot risk losing this job. From the look on his face, Usopp seems to detect her soon to be unleashed rage and, choosing not to undergo it, he regards the surgeon with a quick bow, seizes Luffy by the collar and along with his friends, shuffles out of the office.

"Oi, Usopp! I wasn't finished!" Luffy's objections echo throughout the corridor.

"Please take care of yourself, okay?" requests Chopper, who the surgeon seems not to mind as much, having been acquainted with him several times before as a fellow doctor.

Nami smiles. "I will. Promise."

Chopper offers her a giggle together with a hasty dance, gives the surgeon a rather adorable salute, and scuttles out after his friends.

Turning around, Nami squints warily and watches her doctor as he releases a cross sigh; he can't make his relief over their departure any more obvious. She considers apologizing for them, but finally decides otherwise, as despite their rowdy behavior and impolite barging, they did it out of nothing but love. Thus, she disregards that matter and moves on to the heavier issue weighing on her mind. "I looked over the map in your drawer."

A tint of anger flashes across the surgeon's face at hearing her confession, but as quickly as it comes it disappears, and a questioning gaze eventually rests in its place. He drops the stack of papers in his hand onto a small stand by the door, then fixes his attention on her more firmly, waiting for her explanation.

She continues, "As I mentioned to you before, I'm only here for the money. Being a nurse is not my thing. Mapping, on the other hand, I have a strong passion for. And to be frank with you, Dr. Trafalgar, that map in your drawer, as mean as I may sound, is plain pitiful."

He cracks a smile, the previously tense atmosphere subsiding slightly. "It seems as though mapping isn't your only forte, seeing how you managed to pick every lock, Naji-ya."

Crossing her arms against her chest, Nami returns the smile by playfully sticking out her tongue, "That's right. And though you might not be in _dire_ need of a nurse, doc, I assure you, you _are_ in dire need of a cartographer. I can provide that."

Her main intentions are selfish; truthfully, she is merely longing to go back to mapping, and to do it with her own will and consent. Despite that, she still possesses the genuine desire to be of help; one way or another, and if not as a nurse, then as a cartographer.

The surgeon eventually breaks the ensuing silence with a growing smirk and a scratch of his goatee. "Alright, Naji-ya. I'm willing to give your supposed skill a chance. And given that you've been lazing around all day and got nothing done, I assume this afternoon will be a good time to prove yourself."

"Fine by me," she replies with a grin, a long forgotten surge of enthusiasm seeping inside her. "You definitely won't be disappointed!"

* * *

 **Guest Reviewers**

 _[I genuinely enjoy replying to reviews, but when there's more than one guest it gets a little confusing to me ahaha...]_

 _Guest (1) -Dec/19-_

 _THANK YOUU for thinking so 8D HAHAHA, Yep, it's definitely an interesting write, getting her involved in all this mess c;!_

 _Guest (2) -Dec/19-_

 _Glad you think so, makes me happy, THANK YOU ;D!_

 _Guest (3) -Dec/27-_

 _Goodie, that's what I'm going for LOL. THANK YOU, VERY MUCH APPRECIATED :!_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Chapter 4**_

"Who the hell's this squirt?" a wildly crimson-headed man standing at the apartment doorway barks irritably upon noticing Nami, the supposed squirt, standing next to the surgeon. Her fists tighten in response as her doctor escorts her in, and she finally recalls hearing the man's colorful language at the office earlier that day. She turns around to face him.

"What squirt?!" she bites out.

"Heh," he snorts, slamming the door shut, "Would you look at that? It talks, too!"

"Leave him alone, Eustass-ya," interjects Law, preventing Nami from counterattacking or perhaps giving her fist a warm up. She huffs indignantly, facing forward and allowing her eyes to take in her surroundings. Her eyebrows ascend in amusement at noting the apartment's unique arrangement; half of it being tremendously neat, complimented by a friendly set of sofas, a wide coffee table, and three shelves generously packed with books. The other side, in contrast, reeks with chaos, with a brown leather couch resting in the centre of it, piled with heaps of clothes and week-old pizza boxes, along with a big television screen settled a few feet away from it. She shudders despite herself.

Her sour expression eventually dissolves, however, as she concludes that the neat side is in fact surgeon's, and that she won't be dealing with the turmoil of what she assumes to be the vexing red-headed man's side of the living room. She sets her messenger bag down on the sofa and stretches her arms as far as they can go. Not a bad place, overall.

"Well? Care to explain why the hell you brought some bean sprout into our apartment, Trafalgar?"

"Don't be so mean to my chan," a familiar voice butts in, making Nami turn towards the creaking door resting near the end of the bookshelves. A broad smile blossoms on her face as she watches the duo she met a day before; Penguin and Shachi, walking out with a pair of large boxes and bearing friendly smiles on their faces.

"Good to see you again so soon, my chan! Law-san called and explained everything to us, so we've been getting things set up for you," Penguin explains merrily, bobbing his head at the boxes he and Shachi set atop the coffee table. Momentarily brushing off the crimson-head's crude remarks, Nami laughs; both at the nickname Penguin chose for her and at the blush glowing brightly across his cheeks. Giving him a nod of confirmation, she says, "Ah, I'm glad to be of help!"

Shachi offers her a warm smile, pointing briefly at the other red-head in the room, "Sorry about him, Naji-chan. He's Law-san's roommate, Eustass Kid."

Nami hums thoughtfully, clucks her tongue then scoffs, "I feel sorry for Dr. Trafalgar."

"I'm gonna murder this piece of shit…" Kid fumes to Shachi, his eyes boring into Nami's with scorching anger. His ferocity alarms her, but having handled men of his sort for eight years of her life, along with seeing a tad of her own temper reflecting off him, she finds that sense of anxiety quickly fading away. She sends a dominant smile towards him, ignoring the concerned glances Shachi flashes her along the way.

"Please take care of me, then, Kid!" she says, whirling around and heading towards the coffee table, ignoring the scoff he releases in response.

Shachi and Penguin begin unpacking the boxes, which Nami didn't realize until then were filled with nothing but mapping equipment. She releases the strap of her messenger bag and scuttles towards them in almost childlike excitement. Her eyes start by inspecting the equipment; from the high quality white canvases to the dozens of ink bottles perfectly laid out, fresh and ready to use. She begins by snatching one of the rolled up maps sitting in a neat pile, unrolling it, and after giving it a brief check up, taking in its lack of detail, its sloppiness, along with the big stain of coffee plastered in the centre of it; she raises it in confusion and waves it for all to see, "Eh…whodraws these?"

The surgeon, who came back only a moment ago from taking off his lab coat, steers his eyes towards his roommate in response to her question. Following his gaze and finally understanding who the culprit is, Nami clamps her mouth shut in attempt to suppress a laugh from rupturing as she watches Kid's face develop into a hue as red as his wild locks, "No wonder they're so bad!"

"Oh, fuck off, what do you know?!" he barks, grabbing a bottle of booze from the floor and plunking on his couch crossly, his temper not quite as torrid, much to her relief.

Shachi laughs, "Eustass-san always gets around to drawing the maps we need when he's drunk, and it isn't his forte to start with, so they tend to turn out pretty sloppy."

"Naji-ya," the surgeon interrupts her fit of laughter, nodding his head towards the mapping gear, "If what you told me is true, I expect you to have it fully redrawn by the end of the day."

"Like I said, doc, you won't be disappointed. You'll have your map in no time, I can assure you that. All I ask for is some quiet, "she affirms gladly, sending him a confident smile, then adding, "oh, and a cup of tea!"

"Coming right up, my chan!" Penguin regards her with a salute, grabs a baffled Shachi by the arm and dashes towards the kitchen.

Although she enjoys their company, and though many may not believe so, Nami values silence as much as she values money. And despite the countless years of solitude she spent with Arlong and his men, she finds herself yearning for alone time more often than not. It took some time for her friends to understand that, especially the rowdy ones; but they soon came around to understand its genuine importance to her. So when the surgeon gives her a final nod and leaves to what she supposes must be his office or perhaps his bedroom, she can't help but feel grateful.

"Alright…" she exhales, inserting a bobby pin into her now frustratingly short bangs to get them out of her eyes, then slipping on her prescription glasses. She bites her lips in meditation as she stares at the blank canvas laid out before her, carefully thinking over her plan. Smoothing the sheet out with one of her hands, she dips the fountain pen into the ink with the other and draws in a deep breath. She begins guiding the pen across the page with profound accuracy, every so often glancing over at the original map to ensure she hasn't overlooked anything. Her mind is so focused, so centered on her work that she scarcely notices the mug of tea Penguin so wholeheartedly made for her and cautiously set down on the table far enough away from her work.

By the time she finishes writing out the names of each location illustrated on the map, Nami falls back in her chair and exhales with satisfaction, finally allowing herself to take a breather. Sipping on her now cold tea, she gives her work a thorough, final inspection. She smiles.

No dents. No ink blotches. No uneven lines. Zero tea stains.

And best of all; no Arlong to hover over her.

The kitchen door creaks open, making Nami snap her eyes away from her map and shake her head clear upon noticing a yawning Shachi lazily dragging his feet across the room, then dropping exhaustedly onto the sofa across from her. He looks up at her and smiles, "Ah, Naji-chan. Finished?"

"Just about. It needs a few touches here and there, but otherwise it's done."

"A nurse, huh? Who would've known…" he muses quietly, exhaling and tilting his head back. Nami laughs uneasily; not at all deeming herself an authentic nurse, despite his words. She rests her chin on the palm of her hand, pondering over whether she should wait to ask her doctor the question weighing on her mind, or go forward with asking the man sitting across from her. Too impatient to wait for the surgeon to come out of his room, and too uncomfortable to barge in on him, she decides that asking Shachi would be a perfectly wise thing to do. She turns her body around to face him.

"Hey," she begins, crossing her legs and leaning comfortably on the back of her chair, "The location…Why would you wanna go to such an isolated part of the city?"

The place pinpointed on the map is not only far-off, but it is so secluded from every other part of the metropolis that the only reason she is aware of its existence is through her time spent with Arlong. The places he asked her to sketch out tended to be out-of-the-way; hence her extra knowledge.

After a brief moment of silence, Shachi pushes himself up to sit upright.

"I can't tell you much, Naji-ya," he replies with a small sigh. Nami knits her eyebrows, not failing to notice his hesitant eyeing of Law's room door. He continues.

"Or more specifically, I _shouldn't_ be the one to tell you. But seeing how well that map is drawn, I can guarantee that Law-san would want you around, so it's only fair for you to at least know of our general plans," he explains, the volume of his voice dropping slightly, "thing is, we're looking for someone. We have been for a long time, and frankly, we're getting a little desperate."

Nami rests her eyes on her ink tainted hands and silently mulls over his words. She is definitely aware of how reckless she is being; after all, taking the time to redraw a map for a group of men she barely knows a thing about ,that could very well be aiding them in some madcap crime, is not something she ever imagined herself getting into. Perhaps it is Luffy's gullibility rubbing off on her, but she finds herself willing to put her trust in them; enough not to badger Shachi with the questions now flocking her mind.

She lets loose an inflated sigh, "Alright. I'll wait to hear it from who I'm _supposed_ to. But until then, and unless I find out that you guys are nothing but a set of wacko criminals, I'll do my best to be of help."

Shachi throws his head back and laughs, "Can't blame you for being doubtful! With that hoodlum Eustass-san being around and all, who wouldn't be?"

"Watch it, shitface," snarls Kid from across the room, where he has been lounging idly on his couch and guzzling down bottle after bottle of alcohol.

Nami guides her head away from their on-going quarrel once hearing Law's room door creak open, and is mildly surprised to see him looking rather informal; with a plain black T-shirt on, his head missing its customary hat, and in place of his spotted jeans, a pair of gray sweatpants. He looks to her as if he has just woken up from an accidental nap, and appears to be somewhat irked at it as he runs his fingers through his undomesticated locks. She pays no heed to the fact that she finds him a tad endearing in his current state, and opens her mouth to speak, but is taken aback at being interrupted by none other than a fussy meow. Despite it being an interruption, she steers her eyes excitedly towards the sound, and is more than pleased to find a chubby white cat following her doctor out of his room, which then proceeds to rub against his legs and look up at him with a pair of large, pleading black eyes.

"I just fed you, Bepo," he whispers softly to the cat. Rubbing his neck with a minor wince, the surgeon makes his way towards Nami, ignoring the bickering duo across from her. "Naji-ya, are you finished?"

Nami, still distracted by the cat, grabs hold of her map, pushes it gently into Law's arm and tip toes her way towards the cat now rubbing its chin against one of the sofa's arm rests. She bends down and lightly snaps her fingers to get its attention.

"Eh, Naji-chan… he isn't usually friendly to strang-"

"Here, Bepo," Nami pays no heed to Shachi's words of warning as she proceeds with trying to coax the cat to approach her. At first he seems to be hesitant, but with her persuasive words, he gradually starts to draw nearer, eventually getting close enough for her to be able to reach out and run her fingers through his silky coat. Once deciding she isn't too bad of a human, he kneads his way towards her and eventually settles comfortably in her lap, his purrs causing her to chuckle. She carries on stroking him, then takes a moment to flash Shachi a triumphant smile. "You were saying?"

Nami attempts to suppress her laugh upon noticing the sulk gradually overshadowing the surgeon's face at watching his cat openly betray him, and cuddle with someone other than his master. He lets loose a peeved puff of air, then snaps his head towards the map in his hands. An uncomfortable silence ensues as he continues inspecting it, giving Nami a sense of restlessness. Finding it somewhat irritating, she proceeds with thinking of the highlights of her day, and why she should be feeling anything and everything _but_ uneasy; beginning with how she got the opportunity to draw a map –one that managed to make her proud- and not to mention her success in wheedling a typically unreasonable cat onto her lap. Her eyes fall to the said animal resting between her legs. Despite the clumps of fur now collecting on her new uniform, Nami can't help but begin to feel rather attached to Bepo; a feeling she often gets when dealing with her most beloved creatures. She peels her eyes away from watching the cat boldly bathe himself once hearing the surgeon carefully roll up the map. His eyes speak to her own with a hint of pride, much to her surprise- and slight pleasure.

"You should learn a thing or two from him, Eustass-ya," he says to his roommate as he grabs a piece of ribbon from one of the boxes to hold the map in place.

"Tch, learn what? How to pull off lashes as long as a fucking chick's?" Kid spits in return.

Nami stiffens. "E-Eh…? The hell's that supposed to mean?!"

"Really, the hell's up with that petite body of yours? Your face is like a damn doll's, too, it's givin' me the creeps."

"Eustass-san, you don't have to go that far," Shachi reproaches.

"What?! It's true, look at him! Damn pussy…"

Feeling her face flush in both embarrassment and anger, Nami pushes herself off her chair and trudges towards Kid. No way is she going to risk getting found out. Not by some hooligan like him. His eyebrow cocks in surprise as she grabs one of the beer bottles by his couch and sends him an angry scowl.

"We'll see who the pussy is, pussy!" she bites out, making her way around the couch and plunking down on it. A wolfish grin grows on his features as she knocks the bottle back and feels the fiery substance trickle down her throat.

He laughs vociferously and raises his own bottle, "Damn right we'll see! Oi, Sideburns! Get your drowsy ass over here and join us!"

"That won't be happening, Eustass-ya."

Nami didn't realize that he meant that to her joining as well, not until he made his way towards them and ushered her off the couch after her first drink. She frowns, "What?"

"Naji-ya, it has gotten late. You should get home."

"Tch, spoilsport," Kid mutters, almost disappointedly relaxing back on the couch.

Ignoring his roommate, the surgeon grabs a jacket off the door hanger along with his car keys. He nods his head towards the door, "I'll drive you."

"Ah! Naji-chan, here, you can have my jacket. It's cold out," Penguin offers, scuttling towards her and wrapping it around her shoulders before she has the chance to react. Blinking, she regards him with a small smile followed by a nod.

"Thanks, Penguin, I appreciate it!"

"Oi, just cause he's a pussy doesn't make him any less of a guy. Get a hold of yourself," Kid sputters to Penguin after flashing them a disgusted glance. Nami feels a twinge of guilt as she watches Penguin's face fall in realization, as if it momentarily slipped his mind.

"Night, Naji-chan," Shachi says, waving her off. After returning the gesture with a small smile, she steps out of the apartment and gently shuts the door after her. She then slips her hands into the jacket's arms and zips it up; the crisp air sending a shiver throughout her body as she steps out of the building's front entrance. She rubs her hands against her arms, breathing out in relief once spotting the surgeon's car driving up and stopping by the sidewalk. Eagerly sliding into the front seat, she slams the door shut, hands him her phone for the directions to Usopp's house and brings her knees up to her chest, suppressing yet another shudder that has threatened to come over her.

"Dr. Trafalgar, the heater!" she demands, too cold to look for the buttons herself.

"Tch. I let you inside my home, you have now seen me in my pajama wear, and you still insist on addressing me that formally?" he asks in amusement, steering the wheel with one hand and turning the heat up with the other. He guides his eyes towards her and gives her a firm gaze, "put your seatbelt on."

Nami feels a smile pull at the corners of her lips as she replies with a hum and does as he says. His eyes eventually leave her as they approach a turn shifting onto the main street. With a small sigh, she huddles herself a little more to keep the heat from escaping and considers what he said. Sure, she saw him looking relatively casual and spent an entire day at his house, but it was for nothing more than a professional purpose. And though she now feels fairly friendly towards his group of friends, minus Kid, she remains a bit wary of the surgeon himself. Nevertheless, she reminds herself that it was her choice to trust them, and that included him as well. She moves her head so that her right cheek rests on her knees and she can fixate her eyes on him well. He didn't bother taming his hair before he left; nor change out of his comfortable attire, causing her to chuckle at his somewhat unraveled appearance, but feel a bit uneasy at finding it slightly attractive in its own way.

He sends her a glance, his brows crossed, "what is it?"

"I was just thinking. What _should_ I call you, then?" she asks, humming thoughtfully, "Law-san? Sideburns?... Dr. Torao?"

His grip on the helm tightens and he lets loose a small scoff, turning onto her street. "Never mind I said anything, Naji-ya. And put your feet down, I don't want my car getting dirty."

At that point, she finds herself genuinely struggling not to laugh; she needs to stop losing herself in laughter so often around him, because before she knows it, he will have her cornered. It is, after all, one of the many things she cannot change about her femininity, so she sticks to turning her head towards the window and allowing a wide smile to spread across her lips.

They finally approach Usopp's house, and Nami, now feeling especially warm and cozy in the front seat of his car, takes a minute or two to finally unbuckle her seatbelt and grab her messenger back from the bottom of her seat. The previously lighthearted atmosphere vanishes, however, as she reaches out to push the door open, and is stopped as the surgeon unbuckles his seatbelt, swings his body towards her, then grabs the door handle and slams the door shut again. Nami blinks a few times, her stomach dropping with alarming speed as hundreds of panicked thoughts rupture in her mind. Tightening her grip on her bag, she hastily goes over the items inside; trying to recall anything that can work as self-defense. She takes a moment to draw in a deep breath to calm herself down, thinking that she might be overreacting. She then proceeds to steer her eyes away from the window and towards the surgeon, whose hand never left the door handle. His eyes seem to be searching her face for something; what, Nami can't tell, but what strikes her is the lack of intimidation and desire in them as she stares back; something she was expecting to see given their current situation. Nevertheless, her hand remains hovering cautiously over the flap of the bag.

"Naji-ya," he finally breaks the uncomfortable silence. His face rests in a subtle frown. "I'm a doctor, as you may be very well aware of. Having said that…I do trust you to try to be less obvious in the future."

At that, his grip on the door handle relaxes, and he eventually retrieves his arm and settles back in his seat. It takes Nami a moment for her to understand what he meant by that; but when it finally hits her, she doesn't waste a second to shoulder her bag, shove the door open and jump out.

Her panic doesn't subside until she finds herself safely snuggled on Usopp's living room couch, and is able to think over his words more thoroughly. At first his words made no sense to her, not one bit; but as she gave it more thought, it did in fact add up. That day, he was the one to witness her chest dilemma, along with being the one to relieve her of the pain. He could have allowed her to hang about and have a drink-off with his friends, but instead, he forced her away. He also insisted on being the one to take her home. Gently muffling her face in her knees, Nami releases an anxious sigh. His actions make perfect sense now.

"So he knows I'm a girl," she mutters to herself, feeling her head drop limply onto the couch's armrest. Her heavy eyelids finally fall in surrender to the exhaustion of the day. She'll worry more about it tomorrow.

* * *

Ok so I wanted to add Bepo into the story somehow, and as you can see, I settled with the idea of turning him into Law's pampered kitty. AND I LOVE IT 8).

 _Guest review:_

 _Guest – January 6_ _th_ _: Yes he does, and now she knows that he knows, WOOPIE C:! LOL, Thank you for your review 8D!_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Chapter 5**_

Time can't possibly go by any slower. And it frustrates Nami greatly as she sits on the side of her bed, watching her legs fidget restlessly against the polished wooden floor.

It's been a relief to her, to say the least, to have the weekend off to think over her situation, now that her doctor has made it clear that he knows her true gender. Needless to say, having her job on the line was worrying her sick; until she received a call from him on Sunday evening, informing her that he wouldn't be showing up that Monday, and advising her not to turn up as well, then with absolutely no explanation, hung up on her and left her to curse at her phone when she got directed to voicemail the minute she tried calling him back. But despite her frustration over the lack of details, his call relieved her, a lot.

She hears Usopp's swift footsteps as he rushes gently from one side of the house to the other, getting ready to head off to his own job. He pauses from shoving a foot into one of his boots upon noticing her watching him absently from the doorway of her bedroom.

"Ah, Nami! Did I wake you up?" he asks with an apologetic wince, proceeding with tying his shoes once he got her attention. She sighs impatiently, sliding her feet into her slippers and making her way to the kitchen.

"No, I've been up for a while," she explains, snapping on the coffee machine then moving towards the refrigerator.

"Huh, that's weird. Didn't you say you had no work today?"

"Mhm," she murmurs, not in the mood to vent, or even give a brief explanation. Putting a smile on her face, she turns her head towards him long enough to ask, "so how's work? Any good customers lately?"

His face seems to brighten at her question. "Yeah, actually! Business has been pretty good. Dad's been teaching me plenty since he came back from his trip."

"Ah, Yasopp? How is he?" she asks, recalling the one time she met his father some time back. Frowning at the lack of food supplies in the fridge, she settles on a cup of orange juice and a bowl of all-bran as her friend proceeds to answer her.

"Okay, I guess. He's been kinda cranky, though…" Usopp mumbles as he pushes himself off the floor and dusts his pants off. He sends her a wide grin and a confident thumb up, "Gotta go now. Your turn to do the laundry."

She smiles, regarding him with a small wave, "Got it. Get some groceries on your way back, will you? The fridge's empty, and all we have is ramen."

He laughs sheepishly in response, then rushes out the door, yelling, "ask Sanji to do that! See ya!"

"Hey! Uso-"

An irritable sigh escapes her as she settles down at the kitchen table and watches her finger run over the rim of the glass cup in silent contemplation. She should be feeling happy with the extra day at home; she can spend more time studying –she has barely had time to do so the past few months-, seeing how she is determined to return to college once Gen-san and her town are back on their feet. Yet she finds herself doing nothing but eye her cereal and think over the possible reasons behind his canceling today's work; he sounded fine on the phone, health wise, other than his rushed tone of voice. Then she shakes her head, gives herself a minute scolding for worrying over something so trivial, and eventually returns to eyeing her soggy all-bran. As if to humor her, her phone jolts her out of her daze with its excessively loud ringtone, forcing her to drop her spoon and wince at hearing it clash against the hard ceramic floor. Releasing a vexed huff, Nami finally answers, places the phone between her ear and shoulder, and grabs a wiper to clean the splattered milk.

"Naji-chan?" Shachi's voice halts her harsh wiping of the floor. Her head snaps up.

"Ah, Shachi?"

"Ah…I'm calling from Law-san's phone," he explains briefly. She hears shuffling from his end before he says, "can you drop by?"

With a clear of her throat, Nami pushes herself off the floor, drapes the wiper over the sink and bites her lower lip in silent thought. Zoro can't come pick her up; and she currently doesn't own a car. Her only other option is to use a cab to get there, but she would rather not waste the precious change. Then an idea hits her.

"I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

True, she promised herself she would do her best not to steal; at all. And she isn't, she convinces herself; she is merely borrowing the bike. Unless something happens to it on the way, she will definitely return it. Besides, its owner is careless, leaving it out in the open with only a petty lock to protect it from being taken. They would have to do a better job with her as their temporary neighbor. Throwing the hood of her jacket over her head, Nami takes a minute to curse at her overly long pair of jeans that overlap her black boots, nearly causing her to trip, and a minute to tinker with the padlock. She smiles triumphantly upon hearing the familiar sound of a click, mentally telling herself off over the pleasure she feels each time she succeeds in one of these operations.

"Yosh," she whispers to herself, slipping the lock into her bag and throwing her leg over the bike. After checking the breaks' and patting herself on the back for paying attention to his apartment's location when he dropped her off the week before, she heads off.

* * *

The atmosphere sends a feeling of inexplicable dread in Nami as Shachi opens the door to the surgeon's apartment and ushers her in. Her face rests in a subtle frown at the uncomfortable silence filling the living room; where everyone but her doctor sits. She then turns her head to Shachi once more, sending him a questioning gaze.

"What's up with everyone?"

A disheartened, almost exhausted sigh escapes him as he leads her to Kid's side of the room, where he and Penguin are. She regards them with a small wave before setting her messenger bag down by her feet and settling down on a chaos-free chair.

"We went to the location you helped us draw out," Penguin begins, his usual merriment replaced with seriousness and a hint of anxiety. He adjusts his hat, merely using it as a distraction. "It was a letdown. We couldn't find who we're looking for, again, and it looks like we've reached a dead-end."

"Did any of you even explain to the squirt about this?" Kid butts in impatiently.

"Vaguely," replies Shachi.

"Tch," Kid puffs, pushing himself off the couch and grabbing a black leather coat carelessly draped over his television. He sends her a nippy glance, using his head to gesture towards the door. "We're going on a walk, shorty."

Raising a skeptical brow, Nami steers her eyes to Shachi and, after receiving a reassuring nod from him, takes a deep breath, uncrosses her legs and follows the crimson-headed man out the apartment. She has an uneasy feeling about this, given the man trudging a few steps ahead of her is not only twice her size –at least-, but the fact that he felt the need to invite her on a private walk to explain whatever it is that has been conflicting the surgeon and his group of comrades, isn't exactly relieving.

She refuses to take her eyes off of him as he stuffs his hands in his pants pockets and proceeds to lead her farther and farther away from the apartment. She finally speaks up.

"Alright, Kid, what's going on?"

"Impatient little shit," he mutters in return, finally halting his steps to turn around and face her. He eyes her carefully, and then says, "The hospital you and sideburns work at isn't exactly what you might think it is."

She frowns, waiting for him to continue.

"The Donquixote family has a long history of shit and wretchedness that I wouldn'ta known a thing about if I hadn't met Trafalgar," he explains, finally taking his eyes off her to roll them in amusement, "and the only reason I know is because I got him so fucking drunk one night that he just couldn't keep his damn mouth shut. You heard of Donquixote Doflamingo, yeah?"

"Ah, the owner of the hospital."

"That's right, that man is a sick piece of crap," he doesn't hesitate to say. He returns his eyes to settle on her once more. "Now listen here. I don't have the right to get into details concerning what Trafalgar went through with this guy; in fact, I barely know myself, but here's the main issue. Doflamingo's keeping a man hostage right now, a man by the name of Corazon. I don't get why Trafalgar cares so damn much about him, but I know it isn't some sick joke, because he cares enough to get himself stuck in a blackmail scheme with Doflamingo over this guy."

Nami's eyes widen in surprise, both at the fact that a man who would build a hospital can turn out to be such a vile person, and at the situation her doctor is currently in. He never deigns to show it. She shifts in her place, suppressing the urge to rub her hands from the cold breeze starting to pick up. "…How is he being blackmailed?"

Kid narrows his eyes at her. "Do you know about his ability?"

She blinks, then it hits her, "ah, his devil fruit?"

"Ah. The devil fruit he has isn't normal. Doflamingo wants something out of his ability that'll cost Trafalgar his life. And if sideburns doesn't give it to him-"

"-he'll kill Corazon…" she finishes his sentence, the experience of being trapped in a threat such as this all too familiar to her. In a dire attempt to repress the memories threatening to overshadow her thoughts, Nami fixes her eyes on the man in front of her; his deep scowl barely enough to distract her. She purses her lips in silent thought, finally reaching a proposal. Most of the maps and places she illustrated for Arlong were gone. She does, however, have a few of them left, and along with her recollection of all the places he dealt with; maybe, just maybe, she can offer more help to the surgeon. More than ever, given his situation, she wants to lend a helping hand.

She clears her throat, finally snapping out of her mild daze when Kid speaks up.

"You may be the cartographer of the group now, squirt," he says to her, an almost wicked grin growing on his lips, "But ya better keep that mouth of yours shut. Just like you made the decision to trust us, we're gonna trust you. Prove you're worth it by being loyal, or you can kiss that little be-hind of yours good bye."

Nami snorts, bringing her arms up to cross them over her chest. She returns his grin with a smirk of her own, "fine be me, given you stop calling me a squirt, Kid."

"Heh, we'll see about that."

…

It wasn't in her plans to walk in on a half-naked surgeon. Nevertheless, that is exactly what happened.

According to his friends, whenever one of their plans fall short, he makes it more than clear to them that he does not want anyone coming into his room until he himself says otherwise. And being the person she is, she decided that changing his way of dealing with failures would be a fantastic idea, despite the fact that it took her a while to finally muster up enough cheek to go for it; especially after hearing the numerous words of warning from Shachi and Penguin.

But instead of walking in on him sleeping, reading, or sitting at his desk, she finds him standing silently in front of a full-length mirror, with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. Nami suppresses the urge to yelp, and instead remains quiet, feeling her shock gradually turn into curiosity as her eyes take in the tattoos covering much of his upper body. Her eyes eventually leave his back and shift to his hand as he moves it from his side and brings it up to hover gently over the mark plastered in the center of his chest. Something about the void look in his eyes as he stares at it sends through her a sense of understanding; a shared aching she can't quite place her finger on.

Her grip on the doorknob tightens as she catches his eyes looking back at her through the mirror. They remain guarded; cautious as he turns around and beckons with his head for her to come in.

"Eh…I can wait, until you're dressed," she hesitates.

"You've been standing there for a while, Naji-ya. I believe that statement no longer holds any meaning," he replies, the anger or strictness she was expecting to hear in his voice not at all existent. With a mild clear of her throat, she opens the door wide enough to slip into the room, making sure to close it after her. She then slips the hood of her jacket off her head and turns to face him, cursing silently when she finds herself searching for anywhere else to look but him.

"So what brings you here?" he asks, moving gently across the room to grab a small towel. She settles on resting her eyes on his bedside table; it being the farthest away from him. He pauses from running the towel through his hair long enough to look at her, crack a small smile, and say, "did I not tell you to be a tad less obvious?"

At that, Nami releases an amused puff of air, finally forcing herself to look away from the table and direct her gaze at him. "Don't flatter yourself, doc. Unless you're comfortable with me staring at your bare body any longer, your side table is more than interesting enough for me."

"What are you doing here, Naji-ya?" he asks once more.

"It's Nami, actually," she corrects, once again averting her eyes from him. He lets the towel slip from the top of his head to hang loosely around his neck. She then crosses her arms over her chest and mutters, "you might as well know."

"Pardon," he replies, a small smirk making its way onto his lips, "what are you doing here, _Nami_ -ya?"

Whether it is the unnerving smile now resting on his features, or his emphasis on her real name for the first time, she can't tell, but whichever it may be, it has compelled her stomach to make an unnecessarily intense flip, along with pushing her to fix her vision on the side table, yet again. Attempting to hide the frustration she feels at her illogical behavior, she forces her eyes to secure themselves on him once more, then to finally answer his question, she says, "you're not at a dead end. I can help; when I said you weren't gonna be disappointed, I meant it."

Her doctor pauses from slipping out a pair of jeans from his drawer long enough to turn his head towards her, eye her in mild interest and ask, "And how might you do that?"

Nami clucks her tongue. "Quit being so cynical all the time!" she huffs, dropping her hand to her waist and sending him a small pout, to which he responded with a cock of his right brow. Peeling her eyes away from him, she unzips her messenger bag, grabs two maps; they may be slightly worn out, not entirely in great shape, but they are good enough to be able to read and comprehend, at least. She has had them for several years now, after all, and they have been through plenty. She waits for him to finish dressing in the small bathroom tucked at the back of his room, and once he does – now looking pleasantly decent- she pushes herself away from the wall and hands him the maps. Her fingers begin to tap impatiently against her thigh as she watches him take his sweet time unrolling them and giving them an unreasonably thorough inspection.

Seeing how he tends not to show many emotions; on his face, particularly, Nami is pleased to watch his face turn from skeptical, to slightly impressed, to pure bemused. He finally snaps his eyes away from the maps to look at her warily, "how do you know about these places?"

She feels her face harden at his question. Arlong was always forcing her to illustrate and draw maps to several places; mainly outlying areas she never heard of. If it weren't for that, she may not have ever gotten to know of them. With a small clear of her throat, she remains collected, crosses her arms, and says, "I have had…to work with someone who had connections and different involvements in these places."

"In any case, that's not the issue," she continues, avoiding any further questioning. She ignores his fixed gaze, smiles, then struts towards him to snatch one of the maps away from his hands.

"And I have lots more, Dr. Trafalgar," she says, pointing to her head with a playful smile, "stored in _here_."

Her hand drops to rest by her side upon hearing him chuckle lightly, his previously wary demeanor declining, much to her surprise. After carefully rolling up the maps, he hands them back to her, but as she grabs hold of them, she notices his fingers remain firmly wrapped around them. Her eyes snap up to his, curiosity and slight hesitance etched within them. He gazes back at her, his grip on the maps finally relaxing.

"I let you inside my home, you have seen me in my pajama wear, you have now witnessed me practically stripped, and you still insist on addressing me that formally?" he asks, a mildly teasing hue flickering in his eyes. Nami can't help but crack an amused smile. She then pulls the maps away from his hold and slips them into her messenger bag.

"Since I'm being your nurse… _and_ cartographer," she reasons, taking a moment to hum thoughtfully, then send him a sly smile, "I demand a raise. That's perfectly reasonable, Law, wouldn't you say?"

A small puff of air escapes his nostrils, "I wouldn't say you're much of a nurse, Nami-ya."

"Listen _you_ -"

"-but I'll think about it," he finishes, stopping her from explaining any further. With a roll of her eyes, Nami shoulders her messenger bag, huffs, then turns on her heals to leave. Nevertheless, a small smile remains resting contentedly on her features as she opens the door, steps out, and is immediately welcomed by three set of curious eyes waiting to hear her report- but she remains a tad out of it. Maybe walking in on a naked surgeon wasn't that bad of an accident after all.

* * *

 _Bit of a shorter one - but that's all for today!_

 _THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT 8D!_


	6. Chapter 6

_**Chapter 6**_

"I'm coming with you," Nami demands, crossing her arms over her chest.

"You aren't coming along, Nami-ya," Law replies to her as he shuffles from one side of his office to the other; a tad disoriented.

"Why not?!"

"Because you would be in the way."

"I'm not some disposable pair of gloves you can throw away when you're done using, doc! Just let me come, I'm sure I can be of some help!"

"I don't have time for this," he mutters impatiently, sliding his lab coat off and hanging it in the back closet, all whilst avoiding her gaze. Nami groans, her head falling back as she tries to think of another way to convince him. It is the end of their work day, and he and the group are planning on going to one of the areas she provided a map for. But according to the surgeon, just because she helps supply the maps, doesn't mean she can actually go with them; which, needless to say, absolutely exasperates her. Even Shachi and Penguin, who she expected to side with her, agreed with him when he first opposed her coming along. But that doesn't matter to her, because she has already made up her mind; she will go with them, even if it means 'borrowing' that bike again to tag behind their car.

"That's not a good enough reason," she insists calmly, allowing her arms to uncross and drop to her sides. He finally stops to look at her, his eyes carrying clear impatience, but she didn't miss the mild contemplation she saw etched within them.

"It's a perfectly rational reason to me," he finally says, dissatisfying her and grabbing his black coat to get ready to go. He pauses for a moment to look at her again and notice the now moping expression on her face. For a brief second, he seems to hesitate, Nami hopefully notes, but then, with a small, edgy sigh, he says, "I don't deny your help so far, Nami-ya. But believe me when I say it would be better for all of us if you don't come."

The way he phrased it could have been better, she scoffs silently, her anxiously tapping foot finally coming to a halt as he opens the door to leave. Unless he gives her a clear, good reason as to why she shouldn't go with them, she isn't going to give in. She flicks her head to the side to get her bangs away from her eyes, bends down to grab her bag, and says, "Fine, I won't come with you. But you can't stop me from going there on my own."

He looks back at her from the door way, a skeptical brow raised, "well, it would definitely be amusing to watch you ride that bike of yours for three hours straight, Nami-ya."

She snorts. "Whoever said I'd be riding the bike? Zoro is more than capable of driving me there."

All she has to do is remind him of his debt.

Law lets loose an exasperated sigh, his hand lifting to hover over his eyes in irritated, nevertheless genuine thought. Nami feels a smile begin to tow at the corners of her lips; she knows that her doctor isn't particularly fond of Zoro, whatever the reason may be, but if it comes to be in her favor, she will more than gladly use it. He finally drops his hand to his side and takes a step out of the office.

"You will listen to everything I say, do I make myself clear?"

The smile turns to a wide grin as she shoulders her bag and follows him out of the office, her steps accompanied with a small skip. She'll make sure to thank Zoro later.

* * *

"Did the squirt have to come?!" Kid spouts angrily, his elbow practically digging into Nami's side as she struggles to sit comfortably between him and Penguin in the back seat of the surgeon's car. The outfit they are all currently wearing for their mission is garnished with spikes, as well, making it five times worst. She can't help but let out a small yelp of pain and shove him back.

"I barely take up space, Kid, _you're_ the odd one out here!" she snaps.

"This isn't gonna work, Penguin can't even shut the door," Shachi sighs as he turns around from the front seat and observes the situation. Nami sends him an irritable look, feeling her shoulders just about getting shoved into her torso from either side. He is right; this isn't going to work. She then receives a slightly amused glance from Law, who is comfortably seated in the driver's seat.

"Is this a good enough reason not to come along, Naji-ya?"

"Hell no," she bites out, finally pushing herself away from the squishing duo on her sides, making them collide into one another.

"What the _fuck_ are you doing?" growls Kid.

"Making this work! Now scoot to your side so I can figure this out," she yells back, picking herself up completely away from the seat and, without warning to poor Penguin, she steps to his side of the seat, plunks atop his lap and sprawls her legs so that they rest contentedly over Kid's lap and her back rests against the window. She crosses her arms and smiles, ignoring the fuming look Kid sends her as he stares intolerantly at her crossed feet.

"Are you _fucking kiddi_ -"

"That works. Let's go," Shachi interrupts, turning his body around to avoid a fight with the crimson-headed man. Law's amused gaze at her by then has turned cold; and as she gazes back at him, she finds herself unable to understand the reason behind it. With no further words, he turns his own head and steps unnecessarily hard on the gas pedal, stopping her from making any comments or inquiries. Nami takes her eyes off him with a mild roll and rests them at the window across from her. He can be as moody as he wants, for all she cares. Not until that moment does she notice the troubled look etched across Penguin's face, who hasn't uttered a word since she made herself comfy atop him.

"Naji…chan," he stammers gently, swallowing hard. "Are you comfortable enough?"

"Aha! Sorry about this, Penguin," she apologizes, leaning herself as far away from his face as possible to try and lessen the effect she seems to be having on him. Sighing tiredly, she rests her head against Shachi's headrest, and she was feeling comfortable until she begins to feel a tugging sensation in her feet. She snaps her head to look at Kid.

" _What_ are you doing?!"

"Checking your shoe-size, squirt," he replies with a mild snort, "your feet are like a quarter size of mine. How old are you, twelve?"

Nami raises her foot and slams it into his lap, making him grunt in pain.

"Oi, what the fuck?!"

"Keep your eyes on your own feet, damn jerk!" she roars.

"Take a joke, ya' blazing devil!"

"Snacks, anyone?" Shachi attempts to lighten up their fight.

"Ah! That reminds me," she says, turning to look at Shachi, then pointing at the bottom of his seat, "I have a container of tangerines in my bag. Grab that, will you?"

He nods and, doing as she asked him, he grabs her bag and beings to unzip it, but just as he is about to peer in and look for the container, Nami shrieks, bends over the side of his chair and lands a hard slap to his shoulder, taking him completely by surprise. "I meant grab the _bag_ for me, you idiot!"

Shachi blinks, at a complete loss as to what he did wrong, "Eh? Y-yeah, my bad, Naji-chan!"

She hears a small chuckle coming from the surgeon as she bends over to take the bag from Shachi, making her clench her fist in silent anger. It is not her fault that her doctor picked the time of month when she is given no choice but to keep lady-equipment stocked in her bag. She wouldn't be surprised if he somehow figured it out for the mere fun of inconveniencing her. As she retrieves her arm and reverts back to her seat, Law cocks his head away from the road long enough to whisper in her ear, "Is _this_ a good enough reason not to have come, _Nami-ya_?"

Her face flushes as she plunks back down on Penguin's lap, a little harder than she intended to, grabs the container from her bag and avoids the surgeon's gaze from the corner of his eye. Her hands immediately get to work unpeeling one tangerine after the other, taking breaks only to hand them over to the three guys, excluding her doctor. He doesn't deserve any. Not now, at least.

"Whoa, those are good," Shachi approves as he pops another piece into his mouth. Nami beams proudly; the compliments directed to her mother's tangerines never cease to disappoint her.

"Better than the ones Trafalgar stocks up on every now and then," Kid adds mockingly, surprisingly not as fumed as he was moments before. Law scoffs at his comment, turning the car onto a prairie street away from the city.

"Tch, I don't stock up on them for your sorry be-hind, Eustass-ya. I happen to enjoy them just fine."

"Sorry, Law-san," Penguin mumbles, his mouth full, "but the ones you stock up on really _are_ crap compared to these."

Shachi hums in agreement.

Nami tries to hide her triumphant smirk. _Tries_.

"Tch…" he scoffs, his eye taking a quick peek at the back seat, "suit yourselves."

….

The place they finally arrive at is, without doubt, not what Nami was expecting. Given that the man she previously worked for went to unbelievably vile places, and given that Law was acting so firm about her listening to everything he says and warning her about not ruining the plan, the place they are currently standing near is definitely not what she pictured. In fact, the friendliness that it seems to be giving off is more nerve-wrecking than if it were to be some place dark and abandoned. She and the three men standing in front of her stay silent as Law goes off to scrutinize the area, making sure it is clear and unguarded. After roughly twelve minutes of waiting, he finally reappears from a corner of the big, ridiculously appealing building- with its wonderful structure and young, vivid vines falling over the walls of the balconies, Nami dreamily, yet warily notes- and beckons for them to follow him.

"There are two main entrances, a couple of back doors and a line of windows on either side of the building," he reports cautiously, his eyes sharing a silent understanding with Kid, who then moves towards the back doors of the building, then turning to Shachi, Law nudges his head towards the first entrance, "Shachi."

"Understood," his friend confirms, giving Nami a quick pat on the shoulder in hushed assurance then shuffling away from the group and heading for the first entrance.

"Penguin, you take care of the second main entrance," Law says, taking one last glance towards the door before ushering his friend away.

"Good luck, capt," grins Penguin to the surgeon. He sends Nami an encouraging smile before treading quietly towards the said doorway. Nami smiles softly, the term Penguin used to address Law reminding her of the way Chopper and Usopp always tend to address Luffy, jokingly most of the time, but in solemn situations, genuinely mean it. She waits patiently until the three men are out of sight –they were sent to be a distraction, in order to give her and Law the chance to slip in through one of the windows- for her to turn her head towards him, grin playfully and ask, "ready to learn a thing or two about the art of picking locks?"

The surgeon's previously solemn expression turns a tad amused at her statement. According to his experience, the place is overloaded with sea prism stone, making him unable to use his devil fruit to their advantage. So her pick-locking knowledge is a definite plus. His hand eventually finds its way to her neck, to her surprise, and then carefully slips down her back so that it rests comfortably between her shoulder blades. Nami gives him a curious, though a tad cynical look. He returns it with a small smirk, "certainly, Nami-ya."

Everything she previously thought about the building instantly burns to ashes as she finally picks the lock of the window, hops in after the surgeon and looks around. Just as he has been suspecting–and thoroughly kept mentioning to the group-, the outside is only a sugarcoating of the truth that lies within. The magnificent outside structure, the garden that surrounds it along with the blindingly polished golden gates no longer hold any meaning as she scans the area they now quietly stand in: dark stone walls and ceilings, dirty floorings, dim lighting and worst of all, a distant echo of what sounds to her like aggrieved moans. Attempting to ignore it, Nami reminds herself that Law made it clear earlier what they were getting into. The building, as significant as it looks from the outside, is in fact nothing but a Donquixote family base and an underground prison.

The sound of two trudging steps from the end of the hall soon snaps her back to their delicate situation. She and Law immediately throw the hoods of their garments over their heads and turn around to walk through the hallway, their heads bowed down enough to hide their features.

The morning of that day, Law and the group explained to her the plan, everyone's exact parts, along with clarifying the role of the tunics they are all currently dressed in. Excluding a time or two, on each mission they went on, the men and women in the places wore the exact same garments – a garment that clearly displayed their service under the Donquixote family. And though Nami and the group aren't planning to be out in the open during their time here, the outfits remain a good veil to them.

"Nami-ya," Law whispers to her as they proceed with taking different routes, in attempt to lose the men walking several feet behind them, "no matter what happens, you have to stay by me. Don't stray off on your own and cause me trouble."

"You can't stress that enough, can you?" she mumbles back, a tad irritated, yet still grateful for the hint of concern etched in his reproach. Nami's mind gradually begins to buzz with recollections; memories she has been struggling not to evoke as they draw nearer and nearer to the sounds of men and women's gripes and groans of pain. She starts to gnaw at her lower lip in dire effort to suppress them like she has always managed to do.

They finally approach a set of stairs, after going through several routes and passing enough of Doflamingo's subordinates; the community of the Donquixote workers doesn't seem to be the friendliest, she notes, thus ignoring one another is not considered out of the ordinary, which greatly comes to their advantage. She and Law eventually step out of the floor they have been strolling through and onto the staircase leading to the underground prison. They remain cautious of taking slow steps down the stairs; the dim light turning all the more dimmer the farther down they go. They finally arrive at the end of the stairs, quickly locating the door leading to the underground prison, with two guards standing at either side of it. And by that time, the intolerable, upset sounds they have been hearing throughout their mission have reached their loudest. But much to Nami's relief –and as a distraction- when the two 'guards' slip off their hoods, under them appears Penguin and Shachi, looking rather cheerful for the glumness of their current situation.

"You made it," Shachi whispers, nudging his head towards the door, "we took care of the guards."

Nami frowns; though they made it clear that that was their role, they never explained to her _how_ they are to get it done. She decides not to question it; for the time being, at least.

"And Kid?" inquires Law.

"He's stationed at the back door; he'll be ready whenever we decide to come out," Penguin explains, taking a step away from the door to make room for him to go in. "This place isn't as big as the last one we went to, so it shouldn't take as long."

The surgeon nods briefly, adjusting his own hood before turning to Nami, who is responsible for picking the lock of Corazon's cell, given they find him. His eyes speak to her in a stern manner, "this is very important, Nami-ya."

She rolls her eyes, now genuinely getting irritated at his distrust in her abilities, "I know that. Believe me when I say I have had very similar, if not bigger situations like this. Now quit being so worried; we need to hurry!"

He gives her a small nod, sends his two friends one last glance, then opens the door of the prison. Nami takes a deep breath, receives a nudging smile from Shachi, a highly cheery thumb up from Penguin, and follows the surgeon into the prison. As soon as the door is slammed shut, they are welcomed by cells on either side of what seems like an endless corridor. Her observation is suddenly cut off by a rather strong tug to her hood, pulling it even further over her eyes.

"Don't let any of them see your face," Law instructs in a whisper, leading the way. "And try not to look at them, Nami-ya."

She nods, bowing her head and following his steps. Soon after they begin their journey across the corridor, Nami begins to understand why he made sure to instruct her not to look. Every prisoner would slam themselves against the cell bars and beg for them to set them free, the desperation carved into voices of not only men, but what seem to be voices of young children as well, not making it any easier on Nami to ignore them. Unconsciously, she finds herself taking a step closer to the surgeon, his presence and the warmth radiating off his body giving her some comfort. He seems to notice, as his eyes steer away from their path for a brief moment to glance at her inquiringly, but he chooses not to verbalize it.

"Are they all criminals?" she finally asks, her voice high enough for only him to hear. She finds it hard to believe that so many people can be criminals at such a young age.

"Only some," he replies. Nami watches his eyes as he scans one cell after the other and knits her eyebrows, confused.

"What…?"

"Doflamingo and his family conduct experiments on them. It doesn't matter to them whether they're criminals or otherwise," he explains; his tone of voice suddenly turning solid cold. He suddenly stops midway with no further explanation, pushing Nami to do the same. His head steers to their right; where lies a door, squeezed right between two prison cells. The voice of two men suddenly comes seeping through the doorway, driving him to get closer to it in order to hear well. Nami soon follows him.

"Ne, Doffy!" a distant voice exclaims, "it's been ten years already, how much longer are you gonna wait for Law to do the operation?! He might figure out where Corazon is!"

A low laugh follows the question, the sound compelling Law to grit his fists.

"We can't be impatient, Trebol," another voice replies. Nami can practically hear his words seeping through a grin, "Law won't be able to find Corazon. He's looking in all the wrong places, after all, so I'd like to watch him and amuse myself a little while longer."

"Corazon is at his limit, Doffy, you can't keep this up for long! Ne, remember your goal here!"

At hearing that piece of information, Law's head snaps up, his previous attempts of keeping his cool fading away as the cold look in the heart of his eyes gets replaced with deep anger and a mild hint of panic. Nami's fingers curl into small fists as she steers her own eyes down to his hands and detects a single trail of blood running down his fingers and dripping onto the floor from how hard his nails are digging into the palm of his hand.

On impulse, she grabs his hand and tugs his fingers loose. "What are you doing?! Stop that!"

As soon as she quiets down, the two men inside stop talking. Panic arises in Nami's throat as she catches how loud she was. She then turns her body towards the surgeon and tries her best to get his attention, "we need to get out of here!"

He remains unresponsive.

"Can you hear me?! We have to leave!" she pushes, finally grabbing his blood stained hand and giving it a good squeeze, " _Law_!"

To her relief, he finally takes his eyes off the door and looks at her. The distress in his eyes remains apparent but he manages to collect himself enough to send her a nod of affirmation and hastily lead the path away from the door.

Not until they return onto the main corridor does she realize his hand clutching tightly around her own. She grasped his hand earlier to get his attention, get him back to their situation, but instead of helping him, she finds herself being the one comforted by his tight hold. Nevertheless, she doesn't forget the panic he couldn't stop himself from showing when he heard them talk about the condition of the man named Corazon. Kid told her about how important he is to Law, but not until now does she fully recognize what a great deal he truly means to him. At that realization, she begins to feel a strong sense of protectiveness over him. A desire to shield him from feeling the pain of loss. It comes as a surprise to her, this feeling, but she doesn't try to deflect it or push it away.

On the contrary, she finds it rather easy to take in and accept, because she acknowledges that it is a perfectly natural way to feel, when you care about someone.

* * *

 _This took me way too long to wrap up 8) IN ANY CASE, thank you for the constant support, everyone 8D!_

 _..._

 _Guest Reviewer:_

 _Omg c'''''''': SO HAPPY, GLAD YOU LIKED IT, and thank you for the sweet comment ;'D!_


	7. Chapter 7

_**Chapter 7**_

The ride back is quiet. Quieter than even Nami is used to; given that the few times she went through long car rides, she was with the company of her friends who, needless to say, are anything but quiet. Nobody is bothering to ask about the outcome of her and Law's visit to the underground prison; after all, it isn't hard to figure out. The plan was another let down. And unless he takes initiative to speak about what they heard, she feels obligated to keep it between them. Yet, much to everyone's moderately pleasant surprise, instead of sulking and isolating himself from everyone, Law reacts to it in a rather determined way.

"I've decided," he begins to explain, not giving the speed limit a second glance as he drops his foot down onto the gas pedal and races past one car after the other, "that we shouldn't keep going in one group. We'll split."

A small silence follows before Kid decides to speak up, "sure that'll work? It's hard enough as it is with us all going. Even the squirt's presence made things easier, how can you think this'd be a smart move?"

"On the contrary," Law replies, "the smaller the groups, the better. It'll be easier to execute our plans and it will save us a lot of valuable time."

"I see your point, Law-san, but…" Penguin chimes into the conversation, shifting slightly under Nami's weight, "we're five; the group with only two people are gonna have it really tough, since it's not always easy getting ourselves into these places."

Another small silence ensues.

"I'm aware of that," the surgeon finally says as he turns his car into the apartment's driveway, "which is why I have a plan."

…

" _That's_ your plan?!" Nami cries, slamming the refrigerator door shut after taking out a carton of eggs; she offered to make everyone something to eat, and being the poor cooks they are, her offer was quickly accepted. She sets them down on the counter and turns to face the surgeon, a frustrated expression etched across her features.

"Yes," he says, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning over the counter, "that's my plan."

"Last time I checked, you hated my friends," she says in reproach, dropping her hand to her waist, "what happened to that? They suddenly appeal to you now that you need their help?!"

He sighs, not bothering to hide the irritability in his tone, "They are completely free to decline my proposal. There is no need for you to get worked up over this."

"But there's something _you_ need to understand, Law," she replies as she turns around to whisk the eggs in an overly enthusiastic manner, "Luffy never declines when someone asks for help. Ever. He doesn't even consider the possibility that someone could be using him; he has too good of a heart!"

"Ah," he concludes with a mild smirk, "then his 'too good of a heart' will come as a big advantage to me."

Nami drops the whisk.

"What is the _matter_ with you?!" she finally snaps, snatching a piece of broccoli from a basket settled at the corner of the counter and hurling it towards his face. Luckily for him, however, and along with his sharp instinct, the lid of her pan happens to be in his reach, providing him a perfect shield he can deflect it with.

"Eustass-ya was right," he mutters from behind the lid - still receiving hard pitches of broccoli, and what seems to be large cloves of garlic, "you certainly do need to take a joke every now and then."

Nami releases an inflated groan, points her finger towards the door and says, "Just get out so I can get this stupid dish done!"

An irked, and mildly offended look settles on his face in response.

"Are you kicking me out of my own kitchen?" he inquires calmly.

"Yes, I _am_! So unless you want to dine on that crappy pizza Kid has had on his living room couch for the past three weeks, I suggest you listen to me and leave me to my kitchen business," she counters, brandishing her ladle as she speaks.

But to her utmost annoyance, the insulted look on his face dissolves, and replaces it an expression of amusement, accompanied with a small smile. Her eyebrows knit into an aggravated line, only compelling the laughter in his eyes to enhance. The reprimand at the tip of her tongue halts as she feels his fingers run through her short hair in a startlingly affectionate gesture. Every shred of anger she feels is instantly replaced with confusion; both at the abrupt change in his behavior, and at the frustrating knot her stomach twisted into the second his fingers got into contact with her now tousled hair.

"I'll leave you to your cooking then, Nami-ya," he finally closes, retrieving his hand and turning to leave the kitchen, quickly enough to prevent her from watching his face revolve back into the distinct expression of resentment and worry.

Unsure of what to think of the unanticipated outcome of their encounter, Nami bites at her lower lip and bends down to retrieve the relatively big number of broccoli heads and garlic cloves now scattered across the floor; partly doing it for the sake of not wasting precious food items, and partly to distract herself from the intrusive feeling now gnawing at her chest and mind. It isn't the first time she comes upon this feeling because of him; but she has been doing well at ignoring it, and she will continue to do so.

"Oi."

Nami drops one of the broccoli heads and snaps her head up to see Kid, looking at her through the kitchen doorway; a mildly irritated look on his dark face. "Where's the food? And why is your face all red?"

"Eh," she sighs impatiently, grabbing the last garlic clove from the floor and straightening her back, "would you quit being such an annoyance and wait a few more minutes? And my face isn't red…" she mumbles, turning around, "it's just a little warm in here, is all."

He snorts, ignoring her insult, "no wonder, you're always wearing thick-ass clothes! What's up with that? It's like eighty degrees out today."

"I get cold easily, mind you!"

"Heh, you really _are_ a pussy," he says, uncrossing his arms and leaving the kitchen with an excessively loud laugh.

At that moment, Nami's angry conscience chooses to add something special to Kid's portion of food. After dusting off her apron, and with a small smirk, she pushes herself on her tiptoes to open the spices cabinet. A little hot sauce, she decides, should teach him to cut down on the pussy jokes.

* * *

Her plan to make him cut down on the insults didn't exactly go the way she wanted it to. It was, nevertheless, extremely entertaining to watch him spout some of the most colorful words she has heard him direct towards her as he scampered to the kitchen to grab two, large bottles of milk to ease the fiery feeling spreading throughout his mouth and down his throat. Shachi and Penguin had to prevent him from attacking her straight on; all whilst she laughed her insides out at the mortified look on his crimson shaded face.

With Nami currently buckling her seatbelt in the front seat of Law's car, the recollection of said events makes it easier on her not to feel anxious around the surgeon as he inserts the car key into the ignition and turns his head towards the back window to carefully back out of the apartment driveway. He releases a small sigh from his nose, settling back in his chair to drive her home.

"Nami-ya," he finally breaks the silence, "have you been having any more pains in your chest?"

She blinks, slightly taken aback by his sudden inquiry, "the pressure can be kinda uncomfortable sometimes, but there's no pain."

His eyebrows knit in concern, "maybe it would be wise of you to stop this act. At least in front of the guys, since you're spending much of your time with them. I assure you, they may not look it, but they are trustworthy."

She takes her eyes off of him temporarily to settle them back onto the window. It isn't like she hadn't thought of it herself; it would make things easier on her, that's for sure. Nami refuses to admit it to the surgeon, but she considers it to be a kind of protection; a veil, or a shield of some sort. Yes, she decided to trust them by not inquiring any further about the reason behind their needing the maps at the start, but that doesn't mean she trusts them with her own matters. It took her a while to adapt to the surgeon - who has proven to be the type of person not to look too deeply into other people's concerns, much to her convenience- so to be forced to adapt to another set of three men she scarcely knows, who may demand to know the background of her circumstances –specifically Kid- isn't something she finds lining up with her comfort zone.

With a small clear of her throat, she finally answers, "It may take a while for me to build up enough trust around them. Don't take me wrong… they're great guys! It's just..."

She shifts in her seat, crosses her legs and continues, "To put it briefly, the fewer who know about it, the easier it'll be on me."

Much to her relief, he nods in understanding, not making any further suggestions or inquiries about the issue, nor taking any offence to her words. The rest of the ride back is settled in a rather comfortable silence between them; the anxiousness that was previously occupying her no longer present.

Her thoughts eventually take a different route: Law's plan.

Though she is still convinced that she was in the right, and that his so-called joke about using her friends was unnecessarily rude, the overall plan isn't, in fact, a bad idea. He explained to her his thoughts; that making a sort of alliance by bringing in more people –preferably ones he can relatively guarantee to be trustworthy-, splitting into separate groupings and going through the plans would not only save them time, but it would also have a big part in catching Doflamingo off guard. All in all, she thinks it as a very worthy plan, but Luffy and the others have not only made so much effort already to help her with her current situation, but they also have lives of their own to worry about. It isn't fair of her to push this on them; especially when she knows they wouldn't decline her request.

And that is precisely why she is now escorting the surgeon out of his car and towards Usopp's house which, she conveniently notes, is surrounded by her friends' vehicles, confirming to her their presence in her friend's household. Aside from Luffy and Chopper, none of them are particularly fond of Law, so their declining or confirming of this plan will be solely based on their true opinions.

"Crap…I forgot my keys at your place," Nami mutters as she stands impatiently in front of the house's front door. She extends her arm to press the doorbell, but pauses when she recalls the extra key.

"Ah!" she exclaims with a small smile, bending down and retrieving a house key from under the doormat, "Usopp always keeps an extra one somewhere outside."

"Longnose-ya?" the surgeon asks, his voice tinted with a hint of sketchiness, "You live on your own with a man?"

She pauses from turning the key long enough to look at him curiously and nod, "that's right."

Pushing the door open, Nami is instantly welcomed by five sets of eyes, and one set of two pumping hearts.

"Nami-swaaaan!~" Sanji cries.

"Nami! You're finally here! And you brought Dr. Torao, too!" Luffy exclaims as he propels himself excitedly from the end of the living room towards her and the frowning surgeon. Nami, on instinct, pushes Law out of the way fast enough to be the only one receiving the overly eager glomp coming from her hyperactive best friend.

"Dammit, Luffy!" she struggles in his tight embrace, barely able to breathe, "I can't…breathe! Get _off_ of me!"

"Oi, Luffy! Get your filthy hands off my Nami-swan!"

"Shishishi!" he laughs, finally releasing her and stepping back to look at Law instead, who she finds is not only mortified by the boy, but of the piece of pizza dangling from the fan right above his head.

"Luffy! I told you not to start that food fight!" scolds Usopp as he stands with a tray of drinks at the kitchen doorway. He sends Law a sheepish smile, "excuse him, Torao. Nami, bring him in and sit in the living room."

With a roll of her eyes, Nami beckons for the surgeon to follow her in, ignoring the cook as he inconveniently squeezes himself between the two of them. Two seats are available on the couches; one right between a bouncing Luffy and a sleeping Chopper, and one by a supposedly napping Zoro, whose face is rested in a subtle frown; as it always is, and his arms crossed over his chest. Robin, who is sitting next to him, sends Nami a sympathetic smile as she contemplates where to have Law seated. She finally decides to have him sit next to Zoro; seeing how Luffy's excitement might be a bit of a disturbance to him.

"Awww! I didn't want _you_ to sit next to me, Nami!" Luffy whines, succeeding in ticking the cartographer off.

"Sorry to disappoint you!" she snaps, releasing an irritable sigh as she plunks down next to him, despite his noisy protests.

Once handing out the drinks, Usopp grabs a chair from the kitchen and joins everyone in the living room. After a few minutes of silence, aside from the gentle wheezing coming from the slumbering Chopper, Law decides to finally speak up.

"I have a proposal," he begins, instantly getting the attention of Zoro, who until that moment was seemingly unaware of his presence, "Or, more specifically, a request."

He continues to explain his plan to them, and introduce the names of his own friends, all whilst ignoring the crucial details concerning Corazon and his relation to him, which even Nami has yet to know everything about. He even goes far enough to explain the corruption of the Donquixote family, to which she silently nodded. Half way through his explanation, Chopper wakes up, a little confused at first, but eventually catching on once Usopp takes a moment to whisper a couple of clarifications in his ear. Another silence, this time rather uncomfortable, follows his explanation of the plan. The first to speak is Zoro.

"Shouldn't you tell us more about the man you're looking for?" he inquires, his eyes fixated directly at the surgeon, "how can you prove to us this isn't some scheme? I don't know about everyone else, but this is the first time I've heard of the Donquixote family being frauds."

"Ne," Nami insists, momentarily forgetting her previous goal of not butting in, "I've been with him to one of those places; what he said is true. I trust him, is that not enough?"

"You're being too gullible," her friend shoots back.

"Me? _Gullible?!_ " she cries disbelievingly, "You more than anyone else should understand the difficulty I have in trusting people!"

"Then you should know a couple of months is scarcely enough to trust someone. Are you being blinded by how much time you've been spending with him, or do you really trust him, Nami?!"

"I…" she gnaws at her cheeks, remembering the deep concern she sees in the surgeon's eyes whenever one of his friends happen to mention Corazon. She remembers the concern he has shown towards her, multiple times, though subtle, and the unfathomable connection she felt the time she witnessed him wistfully eyeing his tattoos.

Her eyes finally find the courage to look into Zoro's with deep, genuine confidence, "Yes, Zoro. I trust him."

Her friend holds their eye contact for a while longer; increasing the already growing tension in the room, then eventually crosses his arms again and closes his eyes. The tension, however, is immediately broken as Luffy claps his hands happily and switches his curious gaze towards the surgeon once more.

"This sounds like an adventure!" he merrily cries out, bouncing off his place on the couch and attacking Usopp, the poor victim, with overenthusiastic slaps on the back, "we're in!"

"Oi," Sanji butts in next, lighting another cigarette as he eyes Law from where he stands next to the window, "I'm only doing this for Nami-san, you hear me, surgeon?"

"I never thought I'd have an adventure with Dr. Trafalgar! He's so cool!" giggles Chopper, who is still oblivious of the fact that he works at a hospital run by a criminal. They have all decided not to tell him; none of them have the heart to disappoint him, not with how happy he currently seems to be. Even Zoro, who was uptight the entire time, is now relaxed enough to pick a fight with the cook, much to Nami's relief. Her own tense body finally loosens up, despite the fact that her supposed plan to keep it entirely up to the surgeon went straight down the drain. Only then does she find it in herself to look at Law, who is conveniently seated right across from her, and discovers that he has already been directing his gaze at her, a small smile etched across his lips.

She returns it with a victorious wink, "you owe me, doc!"

He chuckles, "that's probably a bad thing to be hearing from you, Nami-ya. But yes, I definitely do."

* * *

 _I didn't get to finish this chapter until today, so excuse any rushed sentences :']. In any case, thank you for the constant support, and YAY, YOU'LL BE SEEING MUCH MORE OF OUR BELOVED STRAW HATS from now on forth c:!_


	8. Chapter 8

_**Chapter 8**_

Nami decides not to return the bike to her neighbors.

And as much as she would like to feel sorry about it, she can't, especially after witnessing them drive into their garage a brand new, unnecessarily showy truck. If anything, she has done them a favor by sparing them the trouble of finding a new place to put their their now useless bicycle.

She contemplates whether to pack sandwiches or rice balls; not having gotten the chance to ask which they prefer, but she decides not to over think it. When they meet up with the rest of her own friends, Sanji will undoubtedly supply them with enough food over her own small contribution. Once reaching the decision to prepare a few of each -and pack a couple thermoses of black tea- it doesn't take her long to collect herself and head off, on _her_ bike, to his apartment.

She curses under her breath, silently wondering whether she got the time wrong as she stands in front of his apartment door, vigorously rubbing her hands against her arms and waiting for someone to let her in. After lingering there for another couple of minutes, and after trying to get through to one of the roommates by phone, she lets loose an aggravated groan, shoves her phone into her pocket and twists the doorknob open, in hope of finding it unlocked. To her surprise, she does find it unlocked, and doesn't hesitate to push it open and invite herself in - she didn't want the food to get too cold, nor did she want to catch a cold herself. Besides, she considers herself comfortable enough with him not to think too much into it.

But once she gets her shoes off, enters the living room, and takes a moment to scan the apartment; she finds it unusually quiet, even for the surgeon.

"Law?" she calls out, tightening her grasp around her bags, "Kid...?"

When she doesn't receive any response, she instantly assumes the rowdy one of the two isn't in the apartment, but suspects the presence of her doctor when she notices the gentle light coming in through a crack in his bedroom door. After setting down the food in the kitchen and taking off her coat, Nami grasps the doorknob of his door and gently pushes it open. She pokes her head in, but just before she declares her presence, her eyebrows knit in confusion at what she sees. Across the surgeon's bed lie endless numbers of pictures-of what she can't tell from where she stands, but from the solemn look on Law's face as he stands above them, Bepo brushing against his legs and receiving no response from his master, she guesses they aren't particularly pleasant.

"You can come in, Nami-ya," the surgeon's voice catches her off-guard, and after a moment of standing uncertainly near the door, she finally steps in, putting on an uncomfortable smile.

"I brought some lunch," she attempts to lighten the anxiousness lingering between them. He merely nods, his eyes not moving away from the pictures. She remains standing with her back against the door, her eyes settled on his body as he shifts his hand from his face down to rest at his side.

"These are pictures of Corazon," he finally says. She doesn't fail to note the lowness of his voice as he speaks, "I've been receiving them from Doflamingo for years."

Nami's lips part, her eyes widening slightly in surprise. This is the first time he has spoken of Corazon, and for him to be so openly telling her about it sends an incredible feeling of satisfaction at discovering his genuine trust in her. She takes a minute to gather herself before pushing away from the door and walking towards him. Her eyes soften in pain as she takes in the numerous pictures of the imprisoned man. From the beginning of the row, she sees the progression of his state as he hopelessly lies hanging from shackles against the wall; his vibrant blonde hair growing dull, his face gradually turning more and more exhausted, his body becoming thinner and painfully fragile. She bites her lower lip in attempt to suppress any sounds from escaping her as she realizes the pain her doctor must be feeling so much of the time, and how tough it must be to constantly hide it. To constantly be on edge. Upon reaching the last row, she notices an out of context photo; one of Corazon, looking ever so radiant with a blindingly wide grin etched across his face, his fingers pulling playfully on the cheeks of an eleven year old, grouchy Law. Her tense shoulders sink, her heart filling with sincere empathy as she watches his eyes gaze in silent longing at the same photo, not failing to engulf her mind with memories of Bellemere.

"He was an officer," the surgeon suddenly says, succeeding in pulling Nami out of her wistful train of thoughts. He releases a cynical breath, his voice dropping, almost as if talking to himself, "until this day, I can never understand why he was so determined to take care of a kid as unpleasant as me."

She can't tell whether her nod is to show her attentiveness, or because she can so deeply relate to his inquiry, but it has been long since she felt such a strong desire to be of comfort to someone. For a second, she considers sharing part of her own background, make it known just how much she understands his pain. Curses begin to flock her flustered mind; she trusts him, she has never been so sure of that fact, but her voice refuses to come out.

"I need to find him, Nami-ya," he finally whispers, his voice calm- but she has known him long enough to detect the sense of urgency etched into his tone, despite its subtleness.

Unable to find the strength to speak, she slowly moves her hand away from her side, slips it into his own and gives him a gentle squeeze; having absolutely nothing else to offer as means of support. The stiffening of his hand in response to her touch isn't lost on her, but no sooner than later does she feel his fingers finally tighten, though lightly, around hers in silent gratitude. Her eyes proceed to look over the pictures, now in dire hope to find something out about his location; despite feeling certain that he has already looked into them more thoroughly than she ever could. But with the help of her friends, now, she is sure that their progress will only improve. Especially with the inevitably contagious determination of Luffy.

"Oi, Trafalgar!"

Their hands part just in time for Kid to show up at the doorway with his ever-vexing scowl, yelling, "would'ya hurry up? Let's eat. I just got the beer!"

 _There goes the idea of relaxing tea_ , Nami notes with a roll of her eyes, a little more than just irked at his sudden intrusion.

"I would rather have something warm," the surgeon interjects, as if reading her thoughts.

She cracks a smile towards him, "Tea sound good?"

…

"Gee, sideburns," Kid chuckles, pushing Bepo off the couch with his foot -gently enough not to hurt him, but gruffly enough not to seem soft, "tea when there's beer? I knew the squirt was a pussy, but I didn't know you were, too. What a disappointment."

"Oi," she snaps, suppressing the urge to try and pick another fight with him over booze; after thinking through her last attempt to take him on for a challenge of drinking, she felt relieved that the surgeon stopped her from going through with it. Though she is unusually good at taking in a large amount of alcohol without getting drunk, she doesn't always manage to act decently. In fact, never does she act decently when a mug of sake is in her hand.

"I'm sure the bar misses you, Eustass-ya," Law reproaches irritably, uncrossing his legs to welcome Bepo onto his lap whilst sipping his tea despite his roommates unneeded commentary.

"You're not getting rid of me until I meet the squirt's friends you two've been talking about," he bites out, chugging down another bottle of sake, "when are they coming anyway, eh? Aren't they late?"

Nami sighs impatiently. _Zoro_.

"For the love of God, Eustass-san, we can hear your voice all the way from the parking lot!" Shachi's voice blares in complaint as he and Penguin all too familiarly walk into the apartment. Law's eyebrows cross in hushed aggravation.

"Has either of you heard of the term knocking?" he asks, soon getting interrupted by yet another set of enthusiastic voices chiming in from the stairwell. Though his usual response to Luffy's presence tends to be a tad resentful and unwelcoming, this time his expression reveals a tint of relief; and despite it being because they can now proceed with planning their next step, Nami still finds herself smiling at seeing him warm up to her friends. The first to barge into the apartment, not shockingly, is the source of all the noise himself.

"So _this_ is Dr. Torao's place!" exclaims Luffy in utter eagerness as he pushes his straw hat off his head so that it hangs comfortably from his neck. Soon after his entrance, the rest of her friends walk in; a couple of them in an aggravated fight, a couple more following Luffy in with just as much enthusiasm, and the last, satisfyingly collected one of the bunch finally steps in and closes the door after them. Nami releases an internal sigh of relief at seeing Robin; not that she minds spending time with the guys, she enjoys their presence, a lot, but she still deeply misses picking out her daily outfits, and going out shopping with her friend and sister, Nojiko. She has collected a good deal of money so far; but not enough. She needs to go a little further until this is all over, and she can go back to feeling like a female again.

"Oi, squirt!" Kid rawrs at the top of his lungs, cutting through her line of thoughts, "get your _damn_ friend out of my fucking hair!"

"But look, it's so red and fuzzy," insists Luffy, a little pouty as he looks at Nami.

"Sorry, Kid," she replies with a mild smirk, brushing off the glares he sends towards her, "you're not a pussy, are you? You don't need my help."

Needless to say, it takes the group a long while to finally settle down; presenting food to the rowdiest of the bunch did the trick, as it always does, thanks to Sanji's blissful cooking. Much to her relief, both he and Zoro are being surprisingly considerate enough not to pick another fruitless fight, despite the spark so clearly crackling between the two as they settle across from each other, saving themselves from another one of Nami's punch sessions. She releases a worn sigh, finally plunking down next to Robin after deciding to allow Luffy to eagerly bounce up and down on the couch. If that's as quiet as he can bring himself to be, she won't risk ruining it for everyone. Law begins to speak, though she can tell the uneasiness hidden in his voice as he attempts to thank them as subtly as he possible can.

"I appreciate your cooperation-" he begins to say, receiving an unnecessarily loud clear of Nami's throat, then sending towards her a rather ticked glance in response.

"...your _help_ ," he impatiently corrects himself, holding his temper only because he has to. As much as he hates to admit it, their assistance will be a big step forward towards his goal. That's a fact he can't deny. In attempt to reduce the tense air building up, Penguin grabs a couple of maps from Law's room and spreads them on the table settled in the center of the group with a jolly grin. Nami flashes him a grateful smile, gaining an adorably bashful scratch of his neck as a reply.

"Here's the plan," the surgeon continues, ignoring his friend's demeanor as best as he can and pointing briefly at the maps, "Doflamingo has a number of prisons and foundations stationed across the island. The guys and I have been to more than half of them, but it took us years to locate them and find our way in. There's not enough time for us to keep doing it the way we've been doing it the past few years; so we'll split into four groups to save time."

He then pauses for a moment, his face hardening slightly as he slips his hand into his pocket and pulls out a picture of Corazon. Nami notices that he has chosen the very first one he received from Doflamingo; when Corazon was still in a relatively good state of being. He finally extends his hand to hand it over to a now calm Luffy.

"That's the man we're looking for."

Luffy blinks curiously as he takes in the picture as well as he can before nodding, sending the surgeon a rather happy grin considering the situation they are currently facing, then giving it to the next person to see. Once Robin gets a decent look at it, she hands it over to Nami, who takes a good, long minute to absorb all of Corazon's features, her eyebrows settling in a conflicted frown. A clear of Usopp's throat finally snaps her eyes away from the picture so that she can pass it over to him and finish showing the entire circle.

"And when is this supposed to happen?" Zoro questions coldly once the picture finally reaches him.

"It will be too suspicious to have all the groups head off on the same day," Law explains, giving no heed to the mild unfriendliness etched in the questioning man's tone of voice, "each group will depart on a separate day of this upcoming week."

Shachi then slips out eleven straws from his coat pocket and bunches them neatly in his fist. He smiles, "let's get the grouping over with, shall we?"

With everyone's nod of agreement, he extends his arm so that everyone can pull one out; minus Chopper, who is having a bit of trouble reaching Shachi's hand until Zoro finally takes the initiative to pick him up and set him on top of the table. Shachi sends the group a last confirming nod and everyone pulls out their straw.

A small silence ensues.

"I got the yellow straw!" Luffy declares, excitedly looking around the room for his unfortunate partner.

"You have got to be _fucking_ with me," Kid's voice seethes as he stares daggers into his own yellow straw.

Nami cringes as she catches a glimpse of Robin's straw, it being yellow as well. She regards her with a sympathetic smile, "Good luck with those two."

Her friend merely chuckles, "I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Zoro! Dr. Trafalgar!" Chopper squeals as he spots his two horrified partners. They both respond with an uncomfortable, almost resentful eyeing of their own straws. Nevertheless, their furry companion seems unruffled by their silence, his excitement easily overshadowing it.

"Thank God," Usopp heaves, his safety reassured now that he knows Sanji is on his team, along with Penguin, who Nami has told him is one of the two friendly guys of the surgeon's group of friends; so needless to say, he is pleased. That leaves Nami to finally detect her own partner: Shachi. He sends her a friendly wave from across the room, unable to get a decent look of her through the chaotic bunch excitedly, or in Kid's case, in utter frenzy, moving from one side of the living room to the other. No doubt about it; though she doesn't mind Kid as much as she did when she first met him, she is more than relieved with whom she has ended up getting paired with. Besides, it will be a nice change of atmosphere, and everyone will get to bond one way or another. She cracks a smile; things seem to be working out rather well.

* * *

Driving at nine thirty in the evening through traffic, heavy rain and barely any gas in his car to his nurse's apartment, with the pitiful excuse of returning her forgotten thermos, is something Law has never seen himself doing. Yet, here he is, standing at the door of her and Usopp's shared apartment, one hand gripping the godforsaken thermos while the other hovers hesitantly over the doorbell. This isn't like him; he is more than aware of the fact. His feet have dragged him to this place, and he himself is yet to understand the reason behind it. Something tells him he shouldn't go through with the visit, but his finger disregards the feeling by dropping down and pressing the bell.

The instant the door opens to reveal Nami, Law knows he'll be regretting his decision.

"Ah, Law!" she greets, startled to see him, and clearly unaware of her demeanor; wearing a white tank-top barely hiding her no longer concealed breasts, with a clasp pinning her bangs away from her face, revealing her big, radiant brown eyes. The sight of her somehow prevents him from replying.

"You didn't have to come all the way for _that_ ," she says with a small giggle, staring down at the thermos clasped in his hands, "I've got plenty of those."

Law's face remains placid, though the twitching of his jaw doesn't seem to want to halt, much to his annoyance. He finally replies, "I was taking care of business nearby. It's no trouble."

"Well, it's freezing out there!" she shudders, stepping away from the doorway and nudging her head in, "come inside."

Once again, his feet seem to do the work for him, as he soon responds with a subtle nod and walks in. He hardly succeeds in preventing the pestering thoughts now growing in his mind from showing through his supposedly calm expression as she closes the door after him and locks it. He sets the thermos down, proceeding to watch Nami intently as she turns around, slips on an amusing pair of furry rabbit slippers and shuffles her way to the kitchen, which conveniently opens to the sitting area, where he finally settles. After snapping the water heater on, she turns her head towards him and smiles, "Usopp's working late today."

He nods to show his attention, disregarding the contentment he finds himself feeling from her news. His eyes follow her as she continues to unwrap two tea bags; he can't help but feel a smile tow at his lips as she pushes herself on her tiptoes, trying to reach the cabinet of mugs. She groans and slams them shut once she manages to grab the cups, "I swear to God Usopp's not much taller than me, why the hell did he build them so high?!"

Law chuckles, crossing his legs as she, pouting, hands him his mug and plunks down on the couch right next to him. She snaps her head up, her previously endearing features now turning into a dark glare, "you and your crazy long legs."

She then proceeds to deepen her irritable scowls and vents about everything else her roommate seems to be doing wrong, the surgeon finding it unusually difficult to focus on her words as his gaze gradually shifts from her eyes down to her lips. Since the beginning, he has been fully aware of her gender. Her features gave her away right from the start, despite her constant and fairly amusing attempts of appearing as a male. Her femininity has always easily come across to him, even with her short hair and ridiculously baggy attire, which he now understands isn't her typical choice of clothing. And as much as she tries, there is no way of hiding it; she's a beautiful woman, in more than just one aspect. He has yet to understand the reasons as to why she needs the money so much to the point where she would decide to do this, but it isn't part of his plans to ask. If she wants him to know; he'll know.

"Is helping with the dishes every now and then such a big task?!" she rambles on, completely oblivious to the fact that he can't hear a word she's saying. Never has he realized how easily distracted he can become by merely looking at her.

"Do you see what I mean?" she finally concludes with a question; a question that catches him slightly off guard, though much to his luck, one that requires a rather easy answer. He sets his mug down and shifts in his place on the couch.

"Nami-ya."

"Mmm?" she mumbles, distractedly running her finger over the rim of her mug.

"You and Shachi are the only two person group," he says, regarding her with a solid gaze, "You need to be very careful."

She finally stops tracing her now luke-warm mug of tea, instead leaning her head on the back of the couch and firmly fixing her eyes on him, the faintest hint of a smile gracing her lips. He observes her silently, the sudden force of her head against the couch causing a lock of hair to slip out of the pin and fall in front of her eyes, "I will."

Giving it no further thought, Law lifts his hand and guides it towards her face, where his fingers come in contact with her stray strand of hair to brush it away from her eyes. The faint shade of pink gradually tinting her face isn't lost on him as he slides his hand down to cup her cheek. Closing her eyes, she eventually relaxes into his touch, much to his surprise, though it only serves as further encouragement to him, and that, he is certain, wouldn't be so warmly welcomed. Her lips curl into a small smirk, "you know, your hands are pretty tender considering the word tattooed on them."

He cracks a smile, "I wouldn't be so sure about that, Nami-ya."

Upon hearing the sound of a turning key, her eyes snap open, and on impulse, she swats his hand away from her face -an action even the surgeon finds himself feeling a tad offended by- just as Usopp opens the door and steps in. Releasing an irritable _tch_ , Law fixes his posture on the couch and sends the long nosed man a frigid glare, not in the least appreciating the polite smile plastered on his face.

"Ah, I didn't know you were coming, Torao!" he says, shoving his boots off his feet and hustling inside.

"How was work?" asks Nami, now completely avoiding Law's gaze, much to his irritation.

"Not bad, we had a lot of customers today! Man, you should've seen how many were…"

At that point, the surgeon blocks off Usopp's reports of the day, finding it difficult to look at him, or even listen without feeling more ticked than he already is. More importantly, he has his answer now. He understands why his feet dragged him all the way over here despite all the inconveniences and clear signs that said he shouldn't. But one thing he knows for sure is, things between them are going to be different, whether it be a good thing or bad. And she knows it too.

…

 _Not gonna lie, I had trouble writing this chapter 8) I was planning to post it a few days ago, but when I reread it I knew that would be a reaaaally bad idea, so I had to go through it a couple more times. I'm still not_ super _happy with the ending of it, but it IS better than it was a week ago, that's for certain 8D. IN ANY CASE, thank you for your constant support, and hope you had a good weekend ;D!_


	9. Chapter 9

_**Chapter 9**_

Nami sighs, "I'm sorry Shachi, you were saying?"

Smiling sympathetically, Shachi nudges his head to the empty spot next to where he sits, "settle down, Naji-chan. I'm sure they're fine."

"I can understand if it was just Luffy and Kid, but Robin promised she'd contact us!" the worried cartographer demands, finally deciding to take a seat next to him in attempt to redeem her cool. She should have been focusing on her own part of the plan, but much to her irritation, Luffy's group hasn't given them a single call, or any sign of reassurance for that matter since they headed off to their assigned Donquixote station that morning, giving Nami every reason to be as anxious as ever. She and Shachi have gotten absolutely nowhere with their own planning, thanks to her constant distraction and uneasiness all afternoon. Needless to say, she now feels both shitty and extremely guilty, particularly with him being so incredibly patient with her.

"There's a big chance their phones are out of service," he reassures, "Besides, you trust them, don't you? They know what they're doing."

Nami suppresses the urge to blurt out more rants about Luffy and how reckless he can be; because it's true, when it's all said and done, she knows they can manage. Especially with Robin there to keep things under control. With a final sigh, she regards her face with an additional smack to get herself together once more, grabs and unrolls the map she so wholeheartedly worked on all day yesterday and says, "alright, I'm fine now. They'll be fine. Let's get this over with."

Shachi nods, "tomorrow's the last day before you and I depart, so let's go over the plan one more time to be sure it's free of any holes."

"Yosh," she affirms, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear; it's starting to grow out a tad too quickly, she silently notes, "so we'll head out at six in the morning day after tomorrow to arrive there at noon."

"I'll have the Donquixote garments ready by then," he continues, "the other map we need is ready, I presume?"

"Ah," she confirms, "once we get there and check for the guards at the front gate, I'll be the first to go in. We're sure they're the correct garments, right? They haven't changed from last time?"

"Yes, and we'll be more certain once Kid's group returns and confirms it for us."

She nods, distracting her restlessness by tapping her foot against the polished wooden floor, "after I make my way in, I'll sneak you inside through one of the first floor windows. I'm sure there'll be plenty of guards there too, so I'm counting on your martial art skills to take care of that."

"And your own weapon? Is it ready?" he inquires.

"Usopp is polishing it up," she explains, perking up a bit. She has been excited to be introduced to a weapon, aside from the wooden pole she has so often used to smack people with in defense. Being a burden is out of the question, she has decided, especially considering how crucial the missions are.

"In any case, I'm also-" she proceeds, but stops upon noting Shachi's absence, noticing his eyes fixated intently on something across the room. With a curious cock of her brow, Nami shifts her gaze towards the object of interest, momentarily feeling her heart stop as her eyes take it in. She then horrifyingly concludes that he has been staring at a laundry basket tucked at the back of the room; a laundry basket with a bra, _her_ bra - the one with the pink lace, mind you - hanging gracefully from the corner of it.

 _Shit._

"Eh…" Shachi finally finds his voice.

She will find a way to make it up to her friend. Later.

"Usopp...He brings girls home all the time, that inappropriate pervert! she blurts, wincing at her lie and wishing, for a brief moment, that she was living with Sanji instead; in which case it would be ten times easier to comprehend. Shachi blinks, his face flushing slightly, as if the mere thought of it is enough to get him feeling flustered.

"Heh...I see," he mutters, shifting uncomfortably in his seat before clearing his throat and, in a small voice, asking, "excuse me if I'm being forward but...he _washes_ their bras?"

Nami clearly did not think this through.

"Pretty darn considerate for a pervert, huh?" she laughs, concluding their conversation by pushing herself off the couch and peering down at her wristwatch, "my evening shift is in half an hour. I'll be sure to tell Law about our plan and I'll let you know what he thinks. Sound good?"

"Ah," he confirms after getting up, pausing at the doorway and looking back at her with a rather cautious expression, "Just be sure he's actually listening to you. Law-san has been unusually distracted the last couple of days."

* * *

Nami can't say she particularly agrees with Shachi - as she has most likely never seen the surgeon as focused and centered on her words as he seems to be now whilst she explains to him every step of their plan at the end of their shift that night. And, much to her impatience, he keeps pointing out and criticizing a number of insignificant details much too frequently; his disapproval rising to a completely different level the minute she mentions their intent to have her be the first to enter the building, his face darkening into a solemn look in response.

"You are not going in first," he says, looking her dead in the eye so that even she finds herself doubting the idea, though only for a brief second.

She releases a sharp sigh, momentarily ignoring how touched she in fact feels at his silent concern before moving on to the issue at hand, "Look, Shachi's no good with locks, we have no other choi-"

"But he is far more experienced with these missions than you are, Nami-ya," he interrupts, refusing to let her talk and only succeeding in making her as irked as ever with him.

Unable to stop herself from scoffing at his words, she drops her hand so that it rests on her waist and insistently replies, "I _assure_ you, doc, I am far more experienced with this type of thing than you think."

His frown only deepens at hearing her words, both in obvious anger and shadowed concern. Nami bites the insides of her cheeks with mild unease. She could have made her point without letting that slip; this will only serve in worsening their argument. He then sits upright in his chair, entwining his fingers together and fixing his eyes on her more steadily before quietly inquiring, "and _how_ did you gain that experience?"

At that, she feels her throat clog with dread. She avoids the urge to break their now distressingly steady eye-contact; this is not the time to talk about it, not when they're practically at each other's throats. Telling him about herself is something she plans on doing, _that_ she has promised herself, but this is the worst time to be bringing it up. With a roll of her eyes, in dire attempt to ease the tension now growing so intensely between them, Nami finally argues, "Law, we know what we're doing. You have _got_ to trust us. We've gone over our plan plenty of times and thought up of every scenario where anything can possibly go wrong. Besides, someone there might recognize Shachi, but they have no way of knowing me. This is the safe route, whether you care to admit it or not!"

An uncomfortable silence soon follows her explanation. The surgeon's eyes don't waver in the slightest as he looks at her, searching her face for something, _anything_ that can help him understand. It frustrates him how much she holds back, and his frustration only increases as the realization dawns on him that he is by no means someone with the right to pry and demand to know her circumstances. Seeing how tense she looks from observing his silence, the agitated expression on his face dissolves, though an unsettledness remains lingering in his mind.

"Is your weapon prepared?" he manages to ask in a monotone voice, his inquiry quickly slipping Nami out of her troubled demeanor. With a wide beam, she pulls her phone out of her pocket and makes her way around his desk, completely disregarding their fight, as if it didn't just happen, by pushing herself onto the table right across from him and shoving the phone, a tad too enthusiastically, into his arms.

"Usopp sent those earlier today," she explains as he takes a good look at the pictures displayed. His eyebrows knit in mild confusion as he scans photos of what looks to be a long, blue pole - finding its mechanism unclear.

"How does it work?"

"That's the best part!" she almost squeals, crossing her legs, "I'm not telling you until I have it in my own hands and I can show it to you live."

His eyes gradually shift from the phone screen up to her radiant eyes, his lips curving into a small smile as he takes in her unusual excitement. She seems to have an abnormal ability to get his mind off his constantly nagging worries, and appears to be increasing in endearment a tad too rapidly to his liking - by merely being herself. He often forgets when it was that he first began to notice the small details about her, her movements or her words; something as small as noting the way she crinkles her nose whenever she falls into deep thought, or how she runs her fingers over and over again through the same strand of hair each and every time she finds herself in an absent daze. Her mere presence comforts him, is the conclusion he has finally reached, but the realization of that fact weighs on his mind. Relying on someone and possibly becoming attached is the last thing he needs, particularly at this point in his life. Yet he finds himself getting unconsciously pulled deeper into whatever this connection between them may be, only meekly aware of the silent fondness of her gradually building up inside him.

"Alright, that's it," Nami suddenly snaps, hopping off the desk and yanking her long coat off the door hanger. That particular evening is especially cold, finally giving her various layers a purpose aside from hiding her bloomers, "I am absolutely fed up with coffee. I'm worried as hell about my friends, and I could really use a beer."

….

It doesn't take long for her to convince Law to drive them to a bar - besides, by the look on his face, he seems to be in dire need of a drink, too. They go to the nearest bar to her house, just to be on the safe side, in case they both drink too much and can't drive a long distance. The moment the bartender hands them their beers, her phone rings. It makes her jolt, her face brightening as her eyes take in Robin's name flashing across the screen. She slaps the surgeon's shoulder instinctively to get his attention before finally picking up.

"Robin?!"

"Ah, Nami," her friend's voice, though clearly weary, sounds relievingly okay, "I apologize if we've worried you. Our phones were out of service."

"Damn right you worried me!" Nami blares, aware that it wasn't their fault but still irked at how long it took for them to contact her. She ignores the knowing look Law sends her by giving his leg a soft kick, "Well? Is everyone alright? Are you back? How did it go?!"

Robin chuckles at her rapidly asked questions. "We're about an hour away from arriving. I know this will disappoint Torao-kun, but we couldn't find him, Nami. I'll give you a call early tomorrow, or we can meet up and I'll tell you the details. Luffy has already fallen asleep and Eustass-san is barely able to open his eyes, so I'll have to keep my eyes on the road for him."

"Ah…" Nami whispers, failing to hide the disappointment etched into her tone, "alright, Robin. We'll talk tomorrow."

The phone eventually leaves her ear and instead lingers between her fingers, serving as a distraction as she thinks of a proper way to tell him. But from the deserted look on his face and the down-pouring of his beer, she can see he has already figured it out. Never has she regretted inviting someone to a bar before, not before now, as she soon finds him chugging down his sixth mug of beer -while she remains on her third- and not looking as if he plans to stop any time soon. Nami finally sets her own mug down and slides off the stool - this has gone too far, especially for him.

"Law, it's late," she says, gently, "you're too drunk. I'll drive us home."

He doesn't seem to hear her as his seventh round arrives, increasing Nami's deep sense of powerlessness and inability to help him. But she can't allow him to fall any further. She can't watch him do this. Reaching over his shoulder, she shoves the mug away from him, the loud crashing of the thick glass against the ceramic floor successfully jolting him from his absence. His drowsy eyes leave the scattered glass and move to stare at her with a confused frown.

"Nami-ya," he mutters, his weary voice fitted to the mild swaying of his head, "I needed that."

She then slips her arm through his and pulls him off his stool, ignoring his weak protest, "tough luck. We're leaving."

With that, she leads him away from the bar and towards the exit, paying no heed to the scowling bartender and his demands for her to pay the price of the now traumatized mug. She yells a couple of reprimands to him, kicking one of the stools with her foot to prove her point just before she shoves the door open and steps out. She shudders as a cool breeze brushes against her bare neck; her arm instinctively tightening around the surgeon, who is too wasted to care for something as trivial as the weather.

"Where are your keys?" she finally asks as they approach his car. The long, empty look he sends her in reply makes her feel edgy, but he soon fishes the said keys out of his pocket and daintily hands them to her. The fact that he doesn't even have the strength to object only increases her already growing worry. After managing to get them both into the front seats, and once she adjusts the seat to her comfort, Nami sticks the key into the ignition and starts the car.

They barely make it halfway to her apartment before she can no longer take the agonizing silence. She finally speaks up, though in a small voice, "we'll find him, Law."

She scarcely receives a response, pushing her to say a word that scares her, a word that shouldn't be used recklessly. But she means it. And she will do everything in her power to stay true to her words, and more importantly, to him, "I promise."

She can't tell whether he's asleep, too drunk to hear her or just unable to respond, but she isn't planning on pressing the issue any further, so the rest of the ride remains quiet. By the time they reach her apartment, it's nearly midnight; the sound of the wind serving as the only sign of life in the neighborhood as she helps him out of the car, careful to keep his head from slamming into the roof. The only reason she appreciates his drunken demeanor is because every other one of her friends tend to have it three times worse - with their loud complaints, inconvenient slurping and laughter before falling straight out cold. As for him, you can tell he's wasted by the swaying of his head, his lack of response and the absent look in his eyes, but aside from that, he is a rather well-mannered being while drunk, much to her convenience.

Nami slips her key out of her coat pocket and sticks it into the lock, trying her best to be quiet as possible as she opens the door and escorts him in, careful not to wake Usopp up. Still holding the surgeon by his arm she struggles, but finally manages, to slip her boots off. Her steps halt as she senses his body lean towards hers, his head eventually falling to the side and resting on her head. She rolls her eyes. At least she now has something worth holding against him.

Though it takes her an unnecessary long time, she eventually gets them across the room, where she unhooks their arms and pushes him gently onto the couch. Once making sure he is in a relatively decent, comfortable position, she slips off her coat, releasing a heavy, depleted sigh. Never has she realized how hard it would be seeing him this way; so dejected, so helpless. It's not like him.

She soon returns to the living room with a pillow, a blanket, and a cup of water in case he wakes up needing a drink. Cautiously, she slips the cushion under his head and drapes the blanket over his body, finally settling down on the table right next to him, unable to find it in herself to leave the room. The steady movements of his rising and falling chest brings her cluttered mind to ease, and before she knows it, her hand inches away from her lap, slowly making its way towards his face, where her fingers trace down his now unbelievably messy sideburns. His lips part, though slightly, and soft breaths begin to steadily waft in, and out. She giggles, "who knew? Even _you_ can look cute sometimes."

The words barely escape her mouth before she feels his hand grasp her wrist, making her body freeze in surprise. Her eyes fix onto the fingers wrapped around her wrist before cautiously moving up to his face, where they lock with his hazy gaze. Something about the look he's giving her brings back the one, persistent feeling she has been doing so well suppressing. She slips her fixed look down to the floor, her hand moving to free itself from his grip.

"You're a drunken mess," she tells him with an anxious laugh, "get some rest, alright? We'll talk tomorrow."

Not bothering to respond, his fingers curled around her wrist loosen, instead trailing gently down her hand and finding their way between her own cold fingers. His hand feels especially warm, making it all the more difficult for her to slip away from his grasp. Silence spreads throughout the room as her eyes drop to his hand, contemplating his bold tattoo. When she first met him, it intimidated her. In fact, everything about this man intimidated her; his gaze, his words, this tattoo. All of him. But as she sits next to him, now, his hand so tenderly entwined with hers, she sees how ridiculous it was to feel that way. The corners of her lips curve into a small smile.

"Get some sleep, idiot," she mumbles, unable to stop her hand from tightening around his in return. As he gradually, and wordlessly falls into a deep sleep, Nami tumbles into a heavy train of thought. But as heavy as it is, she eventually finds herself drifting into a familiar, restless sleep, her mind shutting off from the lingering alcohol and constantly pestering worries.

* * *

"Oi, Nami!"

Her head finally snaps up, "... _What_?!"

It takes her eyes exactly thirty seconds to adjust to the sunlight shining through the living room window. Groaning, she clutches her throbbing head and turns to glare at whoever dared wake her up. _Zoro, Robin, and a rather befuddled looking Chopper._

"It's the weekend, what the _hell_ do you want?!" she snaps, too exhausted, and clearly too unaware of her situation to get up and start her day. She then receives a solid, cold look from Zoro, a small chuckle from Robin, and a confused cock of Chopper's head in response- and only then does she remember her occupied right hand. Now more alert, she shifts her gaze away from her friends down to her hand, curses silently, then brings her eyes up to the surgeon's face, which she is irked to see is settled in a rather uncanny smirk.

"Morning, Nami-ya," he greets.

" _You_ ," she mumbles, letting go of his hand and tumbling off the table, "you just _had_ to get drunk, didn't you?"

She pauses for a moment, a rather important realization creeping upon her. It's _not_ the weekend. It's Friday. It's ten thirty in the morning. Nami snaps her head to the doctor, and in panic, cries, "Law! _Work!_ "

His placid, calm face doesn't waver, "I'm aware of that, Nami-ya. We already took care of it."

"Eh?" she questions, "How?"

"I...I stopped by the hospital early this morning!" Chopper's voice chimes in, his feet shuffling guiltily, "and I managed to get the three of us a day off...b-by lying and saying we had an emergency."

Nami blinks. A feeling of deep sympathy and guilt sweeps through her as she watches him shift uncomfortably; he is way too innocent for his own good. She sighs, in both relief and exhaustion. She could really use a light breakfast. But from the looks of her friends, that's not what she will be getting. Not until she regards them with an explanation. Technically, she doesn't owe it to them, but from the curious look dancing on Chopper's features, and because of his much appreciated favor, she feels obligated to give a brief one. Nami crosses her arms over her chest and looks up at them, but just before her lips part to explain, her front door slams open, revealing an anxious looking Penguin. He takes a brief second to collect himself before steering his eyes towards the surgeon.

"Law-san, I just got a call from Shachi," he stutters, still panting, hard, "Doflamingo...he's at your apartment!"

* * *

 _Needless to say, next chapter won't be as laid back as this one :] BUT, hope you enjoyed the read, and thank you for the support 8D!_


	10. Chapter 10

_**Chapter 10**_

Never has Zoro`s crappy sense of direction gotten Nami so unbelievably frustrated.

They have been following her doctor, or trying to, for that matter, in attempt not to lose him as he races his car towards his and Kid's apartment. Normally, it wouldn't have been a very big deal if they lost him, she knows where he lives - but it's Zoro driving. Not even a step by step modern GPS can teach him the difference between a simple right and left.

"I even pointed this time, you moron!" she shouts, the option of jumping out the window and going on foot seeming like a rather good decision to her at that point. Her friend merely grunts, by now used to her insults and ballistic screams.

"Give it a rest, woman, we're getting there," he replies with a scoff, his overly relaxed demeanor pushing Nami's already thin patience to a limit.

But before she has the chance to bite out with a reproach, his foot slams down onto the break, forcing the car to a sharp halt. Wincing as her head practically crashes into the back of her seat, Nami cracks her eyes open and, after flashing him a warning glare, her eyes steer towards the window, and eventually widen as they witness quite a miracle. Right across from the car, she incredulously notes, is Law's apartment. But as impressed - and confused - as she was at how on earth he managed to get them there, her mind is too occupied with why they drove there in the first place. She lands an approving slap on Zoro's shoulder, sends him a grateful glance and jumps out the car. The surgeon had commanded her, though hastily and barely conscious of his words, not to come along. But Doflamingo, the man responsible for so much of the crap Law has been going through, is at the top of this building. And she is not about to abandon her doctor.

He and Penguin already got there - his car parked unprofessionally at the curb with one of the doors wide open- she notes worriedly, slamming Zoro's car door shut and scurrying towards the apartment. But just before she disappears into the building, she notices Zoro getting out of his car and settling near the apartment's sidewalk in case things get out of hand. It may not seem like a very big issue, but knowing that one of her friends has her back at such a crucial time throws a load off her chest.

...

Nami knew it was going to be bad, but not this bad.

Her hurried steps slowly come to a halt as she reaches Law's floor - whether it be because of Penguin's body blocking the way into the apartment or because of the intense, unruly aura her body is receiving, she can't tell. But her bad feeling instantly rockets as she watches Penguin panic, his body suddenly racing through the doorway and into the apartment, only compelling her own body to stiffen more as she takes in the sight of the room.

The first thing she notes is the chaos it's in - one can no longer say Kid's side of the room is the bad one. Law's bookshelf, which she is perfectly aware he takes pride in, is ripped from its stems and slammed into the floor, the books not only scattered across the apartment, but their contents mercilessly teared and crumpled. Bepo's cat condo, which Shachi and Penguin made and gave to Law only a couple of weeks back, and which Bepo absolutely adored, is now nothing but a pile of crushed felt. Nami's teeth gradually find their way over her lower lip, where they gnaw at it anxiously as her eyes finally find the figure of Law, his fists clenched, standing in the middle of the mess. No sooner than later, however, does she realize it isn't the mess around him that has made him so angry - but the bleeding body of Shachi as he lies motionless against the wall, right across from the living room.

Her body finally finds its bearings.

"S- _Shachi!_ "

Her panic only arises as she scrambles into the room and finds Penguin hovering over him, shaking him by his shoulders and receiving no response. Nami quickly joins him, cursing at herself for not dragging Chopper along - Law seems in no place to be the doctor of the group, not now.

"Ne, Shachi!" she calls out, her hand giving his shoulder a harsh squeeze.

"Law-san, get a grip! Shachi needs-"

"Ah, dear," an unfamiliar, shrilling voice cuts into Penguin's plea, compelling a chill to travel up Nami's spine. Peeling her eyes away from Shachi's body, she cautiously steers them towards the source of sound, "My apologies, Law, was that a friend of yours?"

Nami's memory finally clicks.

Her mind gradually recollects her second day as Law's nurse, the day she passed a tall, blonde man wearing an appalling pink feather coat - he had been the man that put her doctor into such a disagreeable mood that day. Not until now does she realize who it was - the reason, the entire base behind her doctor's pain.

An unruly anger finds its way up her throat.

"Penguin..." Law says, his voice unsettlingly calm, "get everyone out of here. Now."

Penguin hesitates, "But-"

" _Room_."

Not a second later does she, along with Penguin and Shachi's motionless body find themselves dropping - face first - onto the floor of an unfamiliar place. Nami winces, sure that a line of blood is currently trickling down her nose from how hard the fall was. Dismissing that thought and focusing on the issue at hand, she slaps Penguin to get his attention before crawling towards Shachi. She and he grab Shachi from each end and help roll his body so that he faces the ceiling. Never has she seen Penguin look so agitated as he does now, his breaths sounding as uneven as her plummeting heartbeats. She may not be the best nurse, but she has learned a thing or two the past couple of months. And this is the perfect time to apply it.

She rolls her sleeves up, slips her phone out of her pocket and tosses it to Penguin, "Call Chopper and tell Robin to drive him here."

After receiving a nod of affirmation from him, Nami looks around the place her doctor had forcefully teleported them to. From what she finally perceives, he has moved them to the apartment right across from his, after noting that the general structure of the place is the same as his and Kid's home. Luckily to them, whoever lives there seems to be nowhere in sight, for now, so she quickly hustles off her feet and explores the rooms, in hope of finding good cloth to help stop the bleeding and if they're lucky, an aid kit.

A couple of minutes later, she returns to the living room with three wads of clean white cloth, a bucket of warm water and a pair of scissors, but no aid-kit.

"Who in their right mind wouldn't own an emergency kit?!" she complains to no one in particular as she soaks the cloth in luke-warm water, proceeding to clean Shachi's wounds. He is unconscious, but breathing - so far a good sign. But if Chopper doesn't arrive soon, the bleeding will eventually get out of hand.

Penguin finally returns with her phone, his hand shaking so fiercely he almost drops it.

"I called. They're on their way, " he stutters, bending down and scanning his friend with a pair of worried eyes, "how is he doing? Can I help?"

Nami flashes him a reassuring smile, though feeling rather panicked herself, "It'll be fine, as soon as Chopper-"

A deafening blast erupts from where she fears is Law's apartment, the force so strong she almost loses the shred of balance she has, but Penguin grabs her in time to prevent the face plant she otherwise would have given Shachi's abdomen. After hastily thanking him, she attempts to proceed with wrapping the rest of his wounds, but finds it unusually difficult as a fresh swarm of worries flares up in her mind - she has seen Shachi's incredible fighting skills before, but Doflamingo still managed to take him down this easily. What if that blast meant Law is in as much or even greater trouble?

"Hey," Penguin's gentle voice pulls her out of her daze. He nods to her, in attempt to put her mind at ease, "If anyone's a match for Doflamingo, it's Law-san."

Nami nods, both in agreement and in dire hope of focusing on taking care of Shachi. His bleeding is only increasing, and her unease isn't making the situation any better - she needs Chopper. As Penguin bends down to help her wrap Shachi's last bleeding spot, a vociferous laugh comes blaring from the stairwell of the apartment. A laugh belonging to non other than Eustass Kid, the one missing from this entire scene. She may have gotten angry at him in the past, but never has she felt this incredibly furious.

Leaving the last bit of the medical work to Penguin, Nami pushes herself off the floor and vexedly swings the door open.

The drunken redhead turns his bobbing head towards her, his eyes barely able to focus on her face, "Hey hey, it's the squirt! What are you doing in our neighbor's place, huh? Got lost, ya dumb pimp?"

Fury can't even begin to describe what she feels as his body fails on him and clumsily drops him to the ground, his beer bottle escaping his grip and rolling down the stairs. The anticipated crash of the glass is fortunately prevented by the foot of Zoro, however, as he walks up the flight of stairs, his eyebrows cocking in question as he arrives at the top and glances at the drunken mess of a man now struggling to stand. Nami steps into the hallway, her nails digging so fiercely into the palm of her hand she can no longer feel the pain.

"You fucking _idiot_!" she yells, his absent chuckling serving as more fuel to her already fiery anger, "where _the hell_ have you been? Do you realize what's been happening while you were out getting drunk with your dumbass group of friends?!"

When she receives nothing but a slurred answer of _"Oh yeah, you shoulda been there, squirt, we had a blast!"_ she swings her leg and slams it into Kid's side, successfully getting a loud cough of pain from his end. Not bothering to listen to his garbled protests, she spins around towards a rather confused Zoro.

"Zoro, you need to get in there," she hurriedly instructs, pointing at the door of Law's apartment, "Doflamingo and Law are fighting, and I don't know if-"

"Get Luffy and Ero-cook to come," he mumbles in interruption as he steps past her, pushing her to get on to it before cracking his neck, shoving the door open and disappearing into the apartment. The minute he slams the door behind him, another thunderous blast comes blaring from the apartment, followed by a perfect slash of the building wall right across from them, compelling her and Penguin to grab an unconscious Kid and pull him out of the way just in time for the wall bricks to come crashing down, revealing her doctor's living room and everything within it. Her eyes widen as she catches a glimpse of what seems to be thin cords of string being thrust from Doflamingo's fingers towards Law and Zoro. She can only assume it's a devil-fruit ability. Her worries instantly rocket as she watches Zoro holding back the enemy as her doctor, his head bleeding, attempts to get himself together in the back of the now completely exposed room.

It's at that moment she remembers her role, soon slipping her phone out of her pocket to call on Luffy and Sanji for back-up. Her fingers tumble nervously across the buttons of her device, her skin crawling as Doflamingo's blood-curdling laugh pervades the building.

" _OOOOIIII!_ Nami!"

Never has Luffy's shouting sounded so good to her ears. Relieved, she whirls around to see Luffy, Sanji, Robin and Chopper climbing up the flight of stairs. The knowing look dancing on her female friend's face tells her everything.

"I assumed the situation may call for the whole bunch," Robin explains as they reach the floor. Nami, practically whimpering, lets go of her phone and glomps her friend.

Penguin, now nursing not only Shachi, but an out-cold Kid, calls over to Chopper while her other friends, in no need of being directed to the spot of emergency, spout reassuring comments to Nami - Luffy placing a gentle pat on her head- as they rush past her and into the home now turned into a battle ground. She releases a smothered sigh, pushing away from Robin and watching her friends, unruffled, go all-out on the enemy of a man they barely know.

 _She loves their guts, those idiots._

"Are you doing okay?" Robin inquires, her eyes scanning Nami's body in search of any wounds.

"I'm fine, but Shachi..." her words drift as they turn around to watch Chopper replacing the already soaked wads of white cloth, his eyes etched with fret. His extremely apparent worry only enhances Penguin's fear for his best friend.

"Is he gonna be alright? Can I do anything?"

"Once I stop the bleeding, he should be fine," explains Chopper, fumbling with the aid-kid he brought along then handing Penguin a bowl, "can you fill this with more warm water?"

"I'm on it!"

Soon after, Robin is summoned to help transfer Shachi onto a more comfortable surface, her rather unusual devil fruit coming in handy in such situations.

That leaves Nami, standing in the stairway of the building with nothing to do but glance back and forth between watching her friends - the three strongest men she knows - struggle to hold back Doflamingo alongside her doctor, and three of her other friends nursing two out-cold men. If she didn't feel useless before, she most certainly does now. And as much as that fact bothers her, she knows trying to interfere will only cause them trouble. Her weapon isn't ready to be used yet - but one thing for certain is, once it _is,_ they can be sure she will make one hell of a fighter.

Her eyes jump from one to the other as they take turns receiving blows from Doflamingo, his unwavering grin coming off as extremely unsettling to Nami. Clutching at the fabric of her jacket, she tries her best to calm her erratic breaths. They've gone through fights before. It will end well, soon enough, just like it always does.

Just as that last thought soars through her mind, her eyes catch a glimpse of something white and furry bolting, in absolute terror, across her doctor's apartment and towards the stairwell. Her irises instantly dilate.

"Bepo!" she stutters, bracing herself before finally forcing her feet to lead her as close to the mess as possible without getting in the way. Trying her best to stay near the solid walls, Nami takes closer and closer steps to the cat now frozen in fear only a few feet away from the chuckling figure of Doflamingo.

She crouches, reaching out with her hand and snapping her fingers, in dire attempt to get his attention.

"Killing me will get you nowhere, Law," Doflamingo jeers through his grin, easily dodging one of Sanji's strongest kicks. As if in response to his words, what's left of the ceiling crashes down from above him - and though that gives Nami a spark of hope to get him even meekly hurt, he is quick to react by slitting through the bricks, the ease and speed in which he does so instantly alarming her back to Bepo - the one in the most high risk spot of getting smashed by the now flying bricks.

That's when it hits her.

If she is good at anything, it's at being swift.

The adrenaline now pumping through her veins gives her the one shove she needs to push herself off the shaking floor, thank the heavens she chose to wear her good pair of running shoes that day, and bolt across the no longer familiar apartment. Her mind races with prayers to make it in time as she advances towards the yowling cat.

" _Nami!_ " Luffy's distressed cry of her name is quickly drowned by the deafening sound of debris slamming into the apartment's trembling floor, the force so strong Bepo nearly flies out of her grip the second she gets a hold of him. A sharp gasp escapes her as she tumbles to the ground, still clutching the now whimpering cat to her chest.

"I hope my motive behind this little visit has been made clear," the blonde bastard taunts as the dust and battered rubble settles down.

After what seems like an eternity, and as silence fills the now destroyed apartment, Nami cracks her eyes open, grimacing as a sharp pain shoots through her ankle. Once she glances down at Bepo to ensure he's doing okay, she turns her head around only to find Doflamingo gone. Her head begins to buzz, the confusion as to how he could have disappeared so quickly serving as nothing but a headache to her already jumbled mind. Not a second later do her friends, Luffy first, run towards her and swamp her with concerned comments and inquires.

"Nami-san, are you hurt?! Let me help you up!"

"Tch, troublesome woman."

"You...idiots," Nami, a tad flustered, interrupts, "you're the ones who're hurt. Sanji, your leg is bleeding...and Zoro - your arm is slashed! Chopper's in the apartment across the ha-"

" _Nami-ya!_ "

Nami's words halt.

With a knit of her eyebrows, she guides her eyes towards the figure of Law, heavily bleeding and standing several feet away from her. Gently allowing Bepo to escape her embrace, Nami finally manages to stand up, with the help of Sanji and Luffy, and return his gaze with a look of mild confusion and concern. The blood drenching much of his upper body adds to her already panicking heartbeats.

"Law-"

"Why don't you listen, for once?!"

As if the silence that filled the apartment hasn't already been uncomfortable enough, it seems to further deepen with his question. Nami unhooks her arms from her friends' and takes a painful step towards her doctor, her eyes searching his face.

"I insisted you don't come along, yet you did. I told you to get out of this apartment, I forced you out, yet you came back, almost killing yourself in the process!" he chides, his voice rising with every word. Nami's fingers curl into small, frustrated fists.

"What do you suggest I could've done, watch Bepo get crushed?!" she demands, trying her utmost best to ignore the throbbing pain of her ankle.

"You are well aware of the ability I have that allows me to easily save him."

"But you couldn't use it. You were in the middle of a godforsaken fight!" she yells back.

After closing his eyes and tiredly raking his fingers through his hair, Law finally lifts his hand, creating one of his transparent rooms around them and relocating the entire group to the other apartment, this time careful to land them in decent places.

She ends up plunking down on a sofa in his neighbor's apartment. And for once, she feels grateful to him doing so, the quick teleporting relieving her ankle from the trip across the building. Adjusting herself atop the couch, Nami looks up from her foot and scans the now crowded living room. Sanji, along with Luffy, have already made their way to kitchen - in search of something to whip up for the group. Robin and Chopper are still in the process of trying to wake the red-headed idiot she is still very much furious with, and after a few more scans of the room, Nami concludes that Zoro is out of sight. After assuming he has either somehow gotten himself lost in this six room apartment, or has fallen asleep somewhere bizarre, she steers her gaze towards Shachi lying comfortably atop the sofa several feet away from her own, now sleeping, with Penguin and Law hovering above him. She watches her doctor mouth a few words to his friend, to which Penguin smiles and nods, clearly relieved.

Releasing a depleted sigh, Nami stretches her leg, placing her foot on top of the table across from her then resting her head back. Despite her yelling back at him earlier, she can't say she is genuinely angry at his words. If anything, the concern he never fails to show towards her has made it crystal clear she means something to him. And that in itself is enough to force her heart to skip a beat the second she sees him approaching her from across the room a few minutes later.

She watches as his face settles in a subtle frown, his eyes moving gradually from her face down to her foot. After making his way around the table and seating himself on the edge, he starts untying her shoe and gently taking it off. Nami bites the insides of her cheek, her anxiousness spiraling with his touch.

"I'm fine, really," she insists.

Flashing her a quizzical look, he proceeds to give her ankle a light squeeze, to which she responds with a rather sharp wince.

"I don't think you are, Nami-ya," he replies, his gaze falling back down to her foot where his fingers are tenderly tracing the wounded area. She releases a gentle huff, relaxing her shoulders and eventually allowing him to do his job after concluding he has already worked on his own injuries. The both of them fall into a comfortable silence, with nothing but the soft chattering of their friends around them. Her eyes move from watching him work on her ankle up to his face, where she takes a moment to study his features - something she has found herself doing quite often.

"How's Shachi?" she finally asks.

Not looking up, he says, "good. Reindeer-ya is a very skilled doctor."

She smiles, proud of Chopper. He will be very pleased to know of Law's compliment once she gets the chance to tell him about it.

"And you?" she says, remembering the last words uttered by Doflamingo before he left, "are you doing okay?"

At that inquiry, he finally looks up at her. He takes a moment, simply gazing at her, before at last answering, "I've realized that our way of searching for Cora-san needs to change."

She doesn't miss the fact that he never answered her question, but once deciding to momentarily put that observation aside, she raises her eyebrow in question, "How so?"

"If you recall our last visit to one of his prisons, we overheard him and one of his subordinates talking," he proceeds to explain, "he clearly stated that I have been looking in the wrong places. After thinking more into it, I concluded that he could very well be speaking the truth."

"So..." Nami mutters, her mind working its way around the surgeon's words, "to put it simply...we've been looking in the most obvious places he might be. We haven't been thinking outside of the box."

He nods, confirming her statement, "I had instantly assumed that he would hide Cora-san somewhere far, but it makes perfect sense for him to have been keeping him close-by. A place close enough to me that I may never even think to consider."

His words instantly come as a huge relief to her. With her ankle's condition, along with Shachi's current state of being, she has been worried about their assigned trip for the next day. But now that they have reached the conclusion that pursuing the same methods of searching would be fruitless, they can instead spend their time using the small but crucial evidence they have to break down the number of places he may be. For the first time since she joined them, she can feel they are finally getting somewhere - especially as she notes the subtle shimmer of hope radiating off the surgeon, whom she doubts is even meekly aware of it.

Once he finishes wrapping up her foot and ensuring the tightness of it is to her comfort, he regards her with a firm gaze, "don't put unnecessary pressure on it until I give you permission to do so."

Her face falls into a subtle pout, "How will I walk, then?"

"Eustass-ya has injured his legs more times than I can ever hope to remember," he replies, the mild bitterness in his tone confirming to her that she isn't the only one more than a little displeased with the red-headed man's recent demeanor, "he owns a pair of adjustable crutches you can use."

"Huh?! That damn squirt sure as _hell_ won't be using any of my shit!"

Oh _now_ he's awake, Nami exhaustedly notes. But by the livid look on her doctor's face as he gets up, walks across the room and stands above his shouting roommate, he won't be for long.

* * *

 _I finally got to finish this uahdgkdjfgjdfhgdf ;-; it took way longer than it should have._

 _THAT ASIDE, I appreciate your constant support of my story, and if you had your spring break recently, I HOPE IT WAS AWESOME 8D!_

 _Thank you for reading :]!_


	11. Chapter 11

_**Chapter 11**_

Once everyone made a more or less decent mental recovery from Doflamingo's attack, there remained but one problem up in the air.

Both the surgeon and his roommate now need a place to stay.

With the ceiling of their apartment thrashed off and half of their belongings battered to pulp, their place is far from being suitable to live in. The red-headed man of the two, having a separate group of men he often goes out and gets drunk with, decides to crash at one of their homes. Luckily, it seems as though most of the men he knows are single, live alone and are much like him in terms of their way of living, so he ends up with quite a number of options.

As for Shachi, who has been feeling excessively guilty for getting knocked out so easily by Doflamingo, insists that Law stay with him and Penguin. The surgeon himself has made it clear that he is capable of staying in a small hotel until he finds a new place and that, as a matter of fact, he would very much enjoy living alone for a while. But Shachi remains determined and keeps insisting, profusely, eventually forcing Law to accept the offer.

This entire ordeal has been rather conflicting to Nami.

When they first brought it up to the group, she had the urge to suggest that the surgeon come live with her and Usopp - with his place being spacey and unnecessarily big, along with the fact that her long nosed friend scarcely spends time at the house, it would have made perfect sense. But then she hesitated. Big time. And it made her feel a tad guilty, especially since she is more than aware that Penguin and Shachi's place is small, even for the both of them. She also knew that if it were any of her friends, this reluctance wouldn't be there. But it's _Law_. When she stops and gives it some thought, she finds it unusually difficult to categorize him ; she can't for the life of her decide what he is to her. He is certainly more than just a man she works with -nevertheless, the term _friend_ doesn't seem quite right, either. She trusts him. She feels comfortable around him - most of the time, at least. She enjoys being with him.

Yet despite that, she can't seem to shake off her uncertainty.

"Torao, you should come stay with us instead," Usopp bluntly states to the group seated comfortably in his living room, his words successfully pulling the dazed cartographer out of her looping train of thoughts, "I still have an extra guest room you can use, and I'm sure Nami wouldn't mind!"

Nami can't say whether she is grateful Usopp has subconsciously made her decision for her, or not, so she sticks to doing the one thing she can do - stay calm and try not to reveal her anticipation of the surgeon's answer.

To her amusement, his answer is delayed by a conflicted furrow of his brows. She can immediately tell - the mild befuddled look on his face shows he feels hesitant as well. And not the kind of hesitance he felt when Shachi offered, but a genuine reluctance he clearly needs time to mull over before giving a response. His next move is to steer his eyes towards her own perplexed face. He locks his eyes with hers in silent questioning, to which she responds with as much of a blank expression as her face allows itself to pull off.

"I appreciate your offer," he finally responds, now avoiding her gaze completely, "but I'm content to stay at Shachi's."

With a shrug accompanied by a nod of understanding, Usopp pushes himself off the couch and shuffles to the other side of the living room, where Luffy and Chopper are busying themselves with something involving a box, a knife, and a sketchy bottle of pink glitter. Whatever it is, Nami decides not to ask - the one time she did, she ended up shamelessly falling into one of their pranks and, needless to say, things that day did not end in their favor. Instead, she peels her gaze away from the giggling trio and guides it down to her warm tea, her eyes getting lost in the thin whirls of steam dancing their way out of the cup before gradually evanescing into the air. It's silly, she knows - but a part of her feels disappointed with the surgeon's answer. Upon acknowledging that feeling, she suppresses the urge to scoff at her shilly-shally behavior. The mere fact that she has been so reluctant about asking him should be enough proof that it isn't meant to happen - that it would be a bad idea.

Besides, this should be at the bottom of her worries.

For the past couple of hours, she, her friends, along with Law and his friends have been sitting in a relatively stress-filled environment trying to narrow down the places where Doflamingo is most likely keeping Corazon captive. So far, they have three places in mind - focusing their attention on one place in particular : the local suite the surgeon has known Doflamingo to "vacation" in often, which so happens to be only an hour away. Law mentioned that the number of times he has heard of it seems ironic - almost as if the answer has been right there, in front if him all along. Their next step is to plan a day away from their work at the hospital-

Nami frowns.

As if it has been switched off - _blocked_ this entire time, something in her mind finally clicks.

 _The hospital._

Cautiously, she sets her mug down and shifts in her seat.

"Law..." she whispers, only semi-noting that the blaring of Luffy's laughs now sounds unusually far away, "I think I might know where Corazon is."

The man addressed, who up until then has been looking carefully through a pile of said hospital documents, steers his eyes away from his work and up to her earnest gaze. The tense clenching of his jaw doesn't go unnoticed by her as he slowly uncrosses his legs and hunches so that he faces her more directly.

After taking a rather lengthy moment to organize her thoughts, Nami finally begins to explain.

"When I first started working at the hospital, I noticed something a tad weird. But not until now do I realize that it might actually have some meaning behind it," she pauses, squinting her eyes in absent thought, "the building doesn't have an underground parking garage like most hospitals do. Doesn't that seem...a little off to you?"

Nami wouldn't be surprised if he hadn't noticed. Having 'worked' more than eight years of his life in the Donquixote Hospital, five days weekly, for more than seven to nine hours each and everyday, something as trivial - or so she thought was trivial- as the parking lot's location might very well go unperceived by him. But by noting the unwavering expression etched across his features, she quietly concludes that the same thought just may have, no, _must_ have passed through his mind as well. But he remains silent, merely gazing at her patiently and waiting for her to continue. Stopping her teeth from proceeding to gnaw absently at the insides of her cheeks as they always seem to do when she begins to feel anxious, she then carries on.

"Most hospitals have underground levels...levels beneath the lobby," she says as she subconsciously lowers her voice, grabs a napkin from the center of the table and offhandedly pulls the lid of her pen off with her teeth before getting to work sketching her thoughts, "but the Donquixote Hospital doesn't have that - nor does it have an underground parking lot. The entire bottom section of the building is closed off...meaning it would make the ideal place to set up a below-ground prison. Assuming this is the case, and as much as I hate to say it, this plan - constructing it and hiding Corazon right below the place you work at _every_ day- is practically the perfect scheme."

A gentle silence lingers for a while between the two as they simply look at each other, but not long there after does the smallest trace of a smile reveal itself along the sides of the surgeon's lips.

"I had been planning to look into that possibility more in depth before mentioning anything," he says, the faint shimmer glistening in the heart of his eyes displaying a hint of pride, _dare she think,_ in her, "but as it appears, nothing gets past you."

Unable to resist the urge, Nami crosses her arms and releases a nonchalant breath of air, her shoulders elevating with irritation, "you should've told me about it anyway!"

He straightens his back, letting loose a dry chuckle, "but it looks like I didn't have to, Nami-ya."

...

By ten o'clock that night, most of the group had excused themselves and gone to their humble dwellings - except Usopp, who has gone out to the local market a couple of blocks away to restock on his favorite cereal which, he claims, he cannot make through the morning without. And due to the fact that Nami and her doctor have finally reached a sort of verdict - a sign of fresh hope to their dilemma, Law stayed a tad late, speaking to her about the things he, so far, has thought of concerning the hospital possibility. Despite the fact that she still feels offended for not being told about it, she decides not to make too big of a deal out of it because, even though she refuses to admit it, it felt pretty damn good to figure it out herself.

Still, he _did_ deserve a scolding. And she gave it to him, and winded up dragging most, if not all their group of friends against him.

Now, however, it's only them.

The soft sigh Law liberates from across the living room drives her to look up from her now empty mug to his weary face. Though it still holds a sense of stress, it seems more relaxed, like he can finally see the shred of hope that had been, until then, gradually fading. His eyes catch her stare with a hint of amusement - curiosity.

"I should leave you to get some rest," is his eventual, silence shattering reply. Nami, practically forcing a smile, sets her mug down, nods in agreement and pushes herself off the couch.

After collecting his belongings and leisurely slipping his coat on, he fishes his keys out of his pocket and opens the front door. The usually comfortable silence between them is replaced with a tint of tension - something Nami can easily catch up on when it comes to them. She pauses from straightening up the cluttered living-room long enough to see him out. Gently wrapping her fingers around the doorknob, she proceeds to watch him in silence as he steps out of the apartment, regards her with his typical halfhearted wave in farewell and says, "Good night."

"Good night," she replies, flashing him a small smile just before he turns around and walks towards the small flight of stairs leading down to the building's parking lot.

She lingers for a while at the door way, absently studying her bare feet as they shift distractedly from side to side. Her mind begins to wander towards one, particular thought.

 _This is a bad idea._

"Law?"

 _Too late_.

The surgeon, now only a countable feet away from exiting the building, turns around, his eyebrow ascending in mild surprise at seeing her still standing there.

"It's chilly," he reproaches from where he stands, his eyes giving her lightly covered body a brief, disapproving look-over in hope of proving his point, "get inside."

Ignoring his words with a cursory roll of her eyes, she steps out with her bare feet, gently shutting the door after her and suppressing the urge to rub her hands against her arms - she is not about to prove him right. She then hastily makes her way towards him, the cold floors beneath her feet sending a shiver up her entire body and successfully betraying her act. By the time she reaches the flight of stairs, however, he has already climbed them back up again, his face greeting her with a mildly amused stare. Nami blows her out-grown bangs away from her eyes, determined not to give him a chance to speak out with one of his unnecessarily vexing comments about her current demeanor.

"Usopp's offer," she says, forcing down any irrational feelings of reluctance, "it's open. In-case you change your mind."

Clearly, he wasn't expecting to hear that; his reaction showing through his eyebrows as they knit together in a mildly perplexed fashion. He soon releases a small puff of air from his nose, the corners of his lips curling into a crooked smirk.

"It's cold out. You could've just called me if that was all," he mutters, his gloved hands slipping out of his coat pockets and moving up to rub her chilled arms. The gesture catches her off guard. So much, in fact, that her entire body tenses against his touch. Normally, upon noting her rigidity, he would retrieve his hands, but they don't budge, and only proceed with transferring any shred of warmth they have to offer into her arms. Before she knows it, her body starts to relax, and not long there after does it dawn on her how strongly she doesn't want his touch to fade. Her acknowledgement of this sensation sends a feeling of pure dread down her throat - as if what she has been fearing, been _feeling_ is gradually surfacing, making itself known against her will.

"Nami-ya," he finally says, his voice firm and clear, and his eyes flickering in a somewhat mischievous manner, "I don't particularly trust myself to live in the same apartment as you."

Almost instinctively, Nami's face flushes - in both embarrassment and aggravation at his bold words, and at the mere fact that her thoughts have the potential of sinking so deeply into the gutter. His eyes, she now calmly notes, are searching her face in an almost daring manner. Suddenly, she no longer feels so cold, somehow finding herself increasing in warmth even as he, very steadily, slides one of his gloved hands away from her arm and up to her slim neck. His calm eyes that have been fixated so intently into hers slowly guide their way down her face before finally deciding to settle, not at all too shyly, at the sight of her lips. With each of his touches, Nami's thoughts seem to get little more cluttered, her heart blocking any rational thoughts from dominating her mind. Instead, she focuses on him as he, gingerly, tilts his head and draws closer to her face. A bristly, excited chill travels throughout her body as his warm breath brushes against her skin, his lips lingering only an inch away from hers.

The building's front entrance blasts open.

"Gahh, it's freezing out there..." the grumbling voice of Usopp is all it takes for Nami's mind to finally snap out of its trance. All over again, her body turns solid rock, not hesitating to free itself from the surgeon's grip. Her thoughts, though finally more clear, are now in a downright frenzy. She has done the one thing she promised herself not to - allowed her feelings to spring up, almost taking over her actions. A not-so-hidden hint of pure vexation flashes across the surgeon's face which soon, however, winds up vanishing and twisting back into its custom-cool. A gentle shuffling is heard from the staircase as Usopp climbs up, his features soon brightening as he takes in the sight of the two.

"Oh, you're heading off now?" he disappointingly exclaims to Law, lifting his bag-bearing hand, "but I got drinks!"

The irritation hidden below the doctor's face is as clear as day to her, even as he turns his head towards her jolly-friend and gives him a flat, and evidently forced, "I'll pass."

Usopp nods, tiptoeing closer to them and hooking his arm into Nami's before saying, "that leaves you, then, to have a drink-off with me. Usopp-sama will most definitely not lose to you this time!"

"Ah..." she doesn't even attempt to sound focused as her eyes watch the surgeon regard her with a distant nod, turn around and make his way down the now wretched flight of stairs, "...sounds great."

* * *

Things have been so busy lately that Nami has barely gotten the time to focus on her own situation.

Since she left Cocoyashi, she has only talked a limited number of times with her sister, Nojiko. And that bothers her. _Really_ bothers her. But now that it has been nearly three months, the money she has made, though not as much as she has hoped to earn before returning, will be of definite help to her town. And with her current, personal dilemma with her doctor, Nami knows exactly what she needs.

To get away.

She wants to be there for Law, for his friends, for _her_ friends, but right now, she is certain that her mind won't be capable of focusing. At least not as well as she wants it to. Taking a leave from the hospital and planning a two-day trip to her hometown will help her clear her head. She needs to be in her best demeanor; ready, concentrated, and not constantly distracted by her exasperating, cluttered feelings towards the surgeon so that she can be fully prepared for their grand - and she deeply hopes - _last_ invasion of Doflamingo's most suspected underground prison; right below the hospital. And she is more than a little certain that Law would benefit; it's that simple, they need time away from each other. Things have been confusing, and they have been much too preoccupied by whatever it is that has been growing so subtly, yet so clearly, between them.

Her prediction appears to be on spot, she concludes, as she tells the entire group her plan of leaving for the weekend. Her doctor shows no sign of being against her decision of leaving for a few days before their official execution of the plan as everyone else seems to be, easily confirming her hypothesis. They _both_ need this. Badly.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Nami-san?" Sanji inquires, his teeth gnawing distractedly on an unlit cigarette, "leaving after the entire ordeal may be a better option, don't you think?"

She shakes her head, not phased by any of her friends' commentary - though their concern is appreciated, she will not be backing away from her decision. "I need to do this. Besides, it's only for the weekend. I'll be back by Sunday."

With that, no one bothers pushing the subject any further.

And so the next morning, at the very crack of dawn, she packs a bag, ensures her precious money is in a safe compartment, slips on her favorite tank-top, her battered skinny jeans, shoves on a pair of spring sandals, and after leaving a small sticky note on the center of the fridge for Usopp to read, she heads off.

* * *

 _Cock-block Usopp strikes again C8_

 _This chapter was more on the temperate side, but the plot moves forward 8D!_

 _One of my friends suggested I add a finally-they-kiss-oh-lol-nvm scene, and I thought, you know what :)) YAS. Gotta build the romance suspense somehow :'3._

 _IN ANY CASE, I'm very much looking forward to writing the next few chapters because we are drawing nearer and nearer to receiving a conclusion about Corazon C:_

 _THANK YOU AND HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND_ o(≧o≦)o!


	12. Chapter 12

_**Chapter 12**_

The familiar, homey scent of Bellemere's tangerine grove wafting through the afternoon's cool, crisp air drops a heavy sense of nostalgia atop the aspiring cartographer's heart as she, practically dragging her sandal-ed feet, strolls contentedly between the endless rows of the ripening trees. Her faintly quivering lips curl into a warm smile as she spots two, recognizable woven baskets resting against their house's back-door, filled till the very brim with the vividly-colored, luscious fruits. After letting loose a tranquil breath of air and quickening her pace towards the house, Nami proceeds to run her fingers along the tangerines before finally picking one from the bunch and wiping it briskly against her shirt.

 _God, she has missed home._

Just as her long-nailed thumb attempts to break into the fruit's skin, a blissfully familiar voice comes ringing out from behind one of the vibrant green bushes.

"Gen-san, you're worrying too much," complains the ever positive voice of Nojiko, though rather weary sounding. Eyes widening with anticipation, Nami whirls around only to see a head of lush turquoise hair flattered by a bright-crimson headband appearing from behind one of the groves, not an instant later getting followed by the square form of Gen; Cocoyashi's mayor, and Nami's precious father figure. At first, the two scarcely acknowledge her, seemingly too busy arguing about an issue she is currently oblivious to. Nevertheless, watching them acting so normally, so _casually_ instantly tells her things are better. And that in itself is enough to drop an entire load off Nami's mind.

Too impatient to stay put while the two occupied persons take their time to acknowledge her presence, she drops one hand to her waist with a heavy scoff while her other hand occupies itself by playfully tossing the tender fruit.

"Do you not understand what I'm saying? Your sister hasn't been in contact with us for more than three weeks, Nojiko!" Gen reproaches, the genuine concern etched into his tone of voice reminding the said sister of just how much she really means to him.

A teasing smile eventually sprouts across Nami's lips when they still fail to realize.

" _Gee_ , just how long are you gonna keep me waiting here?"

Her sister's previously frustrated demeanor melts within a moment of her spinning around and laying eyes on the tired, yet joyful face of her younger sibling.

"Nami…" her voice comes out as a relieved sigh, though not a second later does Gen, brows crossed and steps harsh, stock towards Nami with a rather forced sense of anger - the happiness dancing in his eyes easily gives him away.

" _Young_ _lady_ , do you realize how long it has been since we last heard from you?!" he attempts to chide, his seemingly-fierce clenched fists relaxing and instead embracing Nami in a hug so tight she finds herself compelled to drop the fruit and return it just as sincerely, her face burying itself into his shoulder with a muffled, "I'm home!"

Nojiko, standing patiently in the back, releases the ever-vociferous laugh Nami has missed hearing so much. Realizing Gen won't be letting go of her any time soon, she then spreads one of her arms out and beckons with her hand for Nojiko to join them, to which her older sister happily chuckles before taking a detour around Gen's rather big, glomping figure in attempt to find her cradled sister.

"Ne, Gen-san, make some room," Nojiko demands with a half-hearted glare, finally discovering an empty spot at Nami's side which she then wraps her arms around and regards with gentle squeezes.

"Welcome home, Nami," she whispers tenderly in her younger sister's ear, pressing Nami's eyes to flutter shut in dire attempt not to lose herself in tears.

Even though it lasts for a fleeting moment, her mind, her thoughts and most importantly, her heart, feels nothing but pure, long-awaited peace.

...

"We've moved on from construction work on the houses to work on recreating the stores," explains Gen as he and Nami sit comfortably across one another at the dining room table, waiting in patience for Nojiko to finish whipping up Bellemere's renowned tangerine sauce to top off that evening's mouthwatering dinner; roasted turkey.

Nami, smiling, crosses her legs under the table and nods along with Gen's reports, soon bending down and seizing her travel bag - quite light, considering she'll be staying for the weekend - to unzip it and slip out her envelope of money. She then waits for Nojiko to turn off the heat under the sauce and, with an oven mitt, carry it to the dining table before finally settling down next to her with a happy, yet weary sigh. Closing her eyes, Nami draws in a deep lungful of air to savor the smell of the steaming sauce; her mind can't help but wander wistfully to the bittersweet memory of her precious mother, cigarette dangling loosely from between her toothy grin, calling the both of them in for dinner after a day of rather rebellious -though minor- shoplifting.

"It smells great," she breaths out, flashing her sister a small smile as she carefully pours the three of them some red wine.

"Gotten pretty damn good at making it, if I do say so myself," she chuckles heartily.

Seizing the moment before they begin dinner and start straying off onto other subjects, Nami gently clears her throat to get their full-attention. She then slips out the precious envelope, slides it carefully across the table and tucks it under Gen's perfectly rectangular napkin.

"This should help."

Nojiko hums softly, exchanging a knowing look with the man settled across from her, "...you've been working hard, Nami."

"Which is why we've got something for you as well," whispers Gen, pulling his chair out just enough to reach into his trouser pants and pull out an envelope of his own. With a confused knit of her brows, Nami flashes her older sibling a quizzical glance, to which Nojiko responds with a make-shift innocent shrug.

"What..." Nami falls into a void silence as her fingers tear open the paper, revealing a baffling amount of money. Never has she felt so helplessly confused. Why would they be giving this to her?

"I don't understand..." she finally finds her voice, looking up at the two with a questioning shake of her head.

Letting loose a rather dry chuckle, Gen pushes his chair back in place and regards her with a warm smile, "we knew you wouldn't consider leaving any of the money you're making in that job of yours for your college savings. So we did it for you."

"And don't you even _dare_ try to refuse taking it," Nojiko adds, her voice firm and almost threatening. Nami's teeth find their way over her lower lip, where they gnaw at it and serve as a rather good distraction to the tears now glistening her eyes. Throughout her time away, and despite all the events she has been drowning in, the thought of college -and the deep concern as to how she'll manage to earn enough money for it- has never truly left her mind. The burden that has been quietly weighing her heart instantly lifts. She doesn't attempt to hold back the grateful tears now lingering at the tip of her eyelashes, allowing them to trickle down her cheeks to show how inexpressibly relieved and appreciative she now feels.

Her hands clutch onto the envelope, unconsciously hugging it closer to her tummy.

"Thank you..." she manages to say in a shaky tone of voice.

Nojiko's previously stern expression grows soft, and she reaches with her hand to give her younger sister's arm a gentle, reassuring squeeze.

"No, thank _you_."

Gen, who has been listening quietly up until then, finally breaks the now touchy-feely environment with a jolly laugh before saying, "the grub's getting cold, girls, so dig in!"

And they do.

Although Sanji's food is, without a shred of doubt, the best Nami has ever had, nothing beats the nostalgic savoring of a familiar child-hood dinner. Their conversations flow nicely, going back and forth between humorous arguments between Gen and Nojiko, and the various and sundry reports on how things have been in the village. Evidently, tomorrow is the time of month that Nojiko goes around handing out baskets of fruit. It'll give Nami the perfect chance to say hello to everyone.

By the time the clock strikes precisely eight thirty eight, Gen excuses himself to head off to his office, claiming that he has last minute preparations to take care of after giving Nami a full ten minute lecture on the importance of contacting them more often, and that he would be more than a little upset if he finds her gone without saying good-bye by the end of this weekend. Nods and playful rolls of her eyes are followed by his speech. His father-side never fails to show itself at the best of times.

This leaves her and Nojiko to clean up after dinner, which Nami finds herself enjoying quite a lot, especially as they gradually fall into a mutual, comfortable silence. When she places the last plate onto the dish rack, her older sister finally breaks the said silence with a statement that the cartographer, up until that moment, didn't realized how deeply she has been dreading.

"You never mentioned that Trafaglar guy."

Nami stops drying her damp hands against her jeans long enough to register her sister's words. She sighs.

Without even realizing it, her mind finally concludes, she has been avoiding the mention of her doctor's name throughout the minor reports she has given about her time away, mentioning only the shallowest of details concerning what has been going on and well, since most of the happenings have involved Law, she ended up barely uttering a word or two. Her face finally falls into a rather flustered frown, her fingers moving to trace up and down the irritatingly long strand of hair always blowing into her eyes.

It's childish, really. She's aware of that. She has always been open with her sister, and for as long as she can remember, they have never hidden a single issue or topic of concern from one another. Yet here she is, struggling to burry the one, the _only_ thing she hasn't said a word to anyone about at the very back of her mind, hiding it from one of the few persons in the world she trusts so completely.

And Nojiko sees right through it.

She raises her thin eyebrows in a knowing manner, nods her head towards the kitchen table before grabbing the half-full bottle of wine and a couple of glasses.

No matter how hard she tries, Nami irritably concludes, she can't avoid this talk. So, with another heavy sigh, accompanied by a small strut in her step, she walks away from the sink to settle down across from her sister and down the red liquid the instant her sister pours it into the glass. Nami complains it's too small to hold the amount of alcohol her body is now in 'dire' need of.

"Nami," Nojiko's soothing voice cuts through her useless complaints, "what's going on?"

Nami's index finger trails around the rim of her glass, the words and explanations of everything that has been going on finally pouring out of her as if that question was the only thing she needed to break down the silly dam in her mind that she has been subconsciously building for so long. Her words halt, however, as she approaches the most recent event. The situation between her and her doctor feels oddly mystical; each time something happens, or more specifically, each time something is so terrifyingly _close_ to happening, she finds her inner strength of holding back, of protecting herself from getting hurt quickly becoming blocked by a feeling that, as much as she hates to it admit to herself, she has never felt towards anyone so strongly before in her life. The unfamiliarity and newness of it all scares hers. Distracts her. Distracts _them_.

Nami shifts in her seat.

"I'm trusting him...Nojiko, I'm _trusting_ this man," she exclaims incredulously, as if saying the words out-loud are making her realize just how bizarre it truly is, "and for whatever reason, I feel so sure this is...right. Am I being stupid? Reckless? _Gullible_?"

Nojiko blinks, a tad caught off-guard by her younger sister's inquiry, though not a second later does her face settle into a soft, understanding smile. She leisurely moves her glass of wine around, eyeing the dark liquid as it splashes against the glass walls.

"As much as I'd like to know the answer to your question, Nami, I don't. You've always been independent; no matter the situation and how difficult it is, you have never failed to reach the answer that's best for you. And I'm _sure,_ " she says, the mischievous glint in her eyes not going unnoticed by Nami, "that somewhere inside you, you've already reached it."

* * *

The weather, Nami and Nojiko discover as they glance cautiously out the kitchen window next morning, is absolute crap.

Uncharacteristically windy. Damp and muddy from the night before's rain. Humid. Grey clouds are blocking the once warmth radiating sun. And most horrifying of it all, the baskets of tangerines that Nojiko worked so hard to pick and clean are now on their sides; the fruits scattered across the wet dirt. And even though she begins by cursing beneath her breath, Nojiko's attitude is, as always, positive.

"Put the bruised ones in the smaller basket," she instructs Nami as they head out with two pairs of battered rain boots and scrappy aprons, "we want the fresh ones for the villagers, and I can use the rest to make more sauce."

It takes them roughly half an hour to collect and rewash the fruit but, by the time they finish, the sun begins to gradually peak from behind the thick clouds; sprouting a pair of smiles across the dirt stained sisters' previously weary faces. After washing themselves up and redressing, they load up a small cart with the heavy baskets and head off. Despite the relatively damp ground, Nami enjoys the mildly cool breeze brushing against her exposed skin. She didn't realize just how much she truly needed this weekend away.

"Eh?! Na-chan, is that really you?" one of Nami's kindest old neighbors, a middle-aged man, exclaims in awe as they enter the village. He fixes his bifocals and grows a blindingly wide grin. "It is! Oh, dear, welcome home!"

"It's good to be home," she replies softly, giggling as Nojiko brushes the man off with a _Hai hai, we've got lots to deliver, old man, here's your share. Now don't forget them out like you did last time and let them go bad, you hear? They're precious!_

The rest of their day goes by like a passing spring breeze: leaving the cartographer satisfied as she helps her older sister pack up the wagon and woven baskets before excusing herself to go on a walk of her own. It has been far too long since she has visited her mother. And she _needs_ her. She has so much to share with her; so much to tell her, yet her words falter upon an usual silence as she reaches the top of the luscious green hill and settles comfortably across her mother's grave. Her brown eyes droop in a gentle manner as they take in the sight of the turning pinwheel, the air blowing softly against the blades and, as always, not failing to spark a wide smile across her lips. For a while, she stays silent, merely enjoying the time alone with her deceased mother.

She draws in a deep, satisfying breath of the evening's crisp air.

"Bellemere-san," she breathes out, her voice cracking and catching her off-guard. _Why is she feeling so unbelievably lost?_ A swift gust of air blows in her face, compelling her to shut her eyes and wait patiently for it to settle down. Something about it almost feels as if it were her mother replying; answering her with a firm pat of tough love on the back. The thought of it forces Nami to let loose a vociferous laugh. She can almost hear Bellemere pause from picking the summer-grown tangerines and whirl around to look at her daughter and say, lovingly but firmly, _"you're strong, Nami. There is absolutely nothing to be afraid of. Now, apron-up and help me pick! Tangerine sauce for dinner!"_

Nami's laugh slowly fades out as her usual sense of strength swells up inside of her once again. A small realization creeps upon her mind. It's undoubtedly true: she did feel the need to be alone, to be with her own thoughts for a while but, in reality, she is really doing nothing but _run_. Run away from a foreign feeling she fears. Run away from him.

The instant this fact truly dawns on her, a sense of great anger at herself lodges itself firmly in the pit of her stomach.

She may be a thief, a sly liar at times, or even a coy flirt when needed.

But she is _not_ a coward.

* * *

 _I was determined not to allow myself to post a chapter under 3000 words but I felt the need to with this one c8. It's a definitely more mellow one, but I also know it felt necessary for Nami's character development in the plot o;. Also, recently I've been craving romance novels, so the more I read them, the more inspired I became to write out the official big moment between Nami and Law. I'm pleased with how it's turning out because GOD even I'M dying to get these two craving idiots together already C'8.  
_ IN ANY CASE, _thank you for being so patient with me! HAVE A FANTASTIC WEEKEND ;D!_


	13. Chapter 13

**_Chapter 13_**

Her trip away was supposed to assist her in feeling more concentrated. More focused on the plan. More centered on what is important: on saving Corazon. But it only seems to have worsened her case by a thousand times because the instant she turns around from replying to her friends' inquires and welcome-backs in order to greet the surgeon, along with his two beaming comrades now lingering at the door-way, her heart endures a sharp, momentary halt.

He doesn't look any different from the last time she saw him. Yet, somehow, she is finally able to see him clearly. See what he is to her. It surprises her, in truth, that it took her this long to acknowledge her feelings. But his gaze at her is distant. No...he is not even gazing at her. He is gazing _through_ her. Her eyes attempt to search his face, search his own eyes - try to understand the reason behind his sudden coolness. She can sense its presence as if it were a separate being in and of itself. This unmistakable gap between them that - and she is sure of this - was not there before.

Nami collects her expression, finding herself struggling to force a smile as she greets him with a, "Law-"

"Toraaaaooooo!" Luffy barely allows her to complete her greeting before he launches himself, most inelegantly, across the room and towards the rather startled surgeon.

"Oi, Mugiwa-"

 _Slam._

Nami winces. The loud crash is soon followed by a clamorous laugh from Luffy, who's arms are now wrapped around the scowling figure of Law in a rather snuggled demeanor.

"Get. _Off_ ," commands Law, his attempts to free himself from her rubber-friend appearing to be unsuccessful as Luffy proceeds to tighten his grip around him.

"You're no fun..." Luffy practically pouts.

It takes a while. A _long_ while, in fact, to pry him off of the surgeon. Though it is not unusual for her to see Luffy act that way towards Law -who, for whatever reason, he seems extremely fond of- and despite her doctor's clear vexation, something about their interaction seems more friendly. Close, even. It compels the smallest smile to tug its way at her lips.

"Naji-ya," Law finally replies to her earlier greeting, catching her slightly off guard -she can't remember the last time he called her by that- then peeling his glassy gaze away from her face and onto her friends' before, still addressing her, he says, "I expect your trip went well."

"It did," she says, a tad hesitantly, unsure of whether his statement was a genuine inquiry or a mere search for something to say. She releases a small, rather irked breath from her nose, finally redeeming herself and ushering Shachi and Penguin in with a more relaxed expression after assuring them that her trip was trouble-free. Once carefully shutting the door, she follows them, in silence, to the living room. She is not going to be distracted. In fact, if anything, this distance between them is exactly what she needs.

It is _not_ bothering her.

"We set the plan up while you were away," Shachi informs her as she settles beside a restlessly bouncing Luffy. He takes out a battered paper and daintily hands it over to her, "Kid was drunk, as always, when he helped draw that. But it isn't all that bad."

He proceeds to explain to her their plan. Nami nods absently as she straightens the paper against her thigh and gives it a good look-over. A rather clumsily drawn - yet surprisingly decent looking- outline of the hospital. She instantly assumes that Law was the one to give his roommate most of the information as he sketched it out, being the most familiar one with the building. Her eyes continue to soak in the graceless details, noticing a few jotted notes squeezed in between the margins here and there - her friends' names mainly, on different sections of the hospital's map. The surgeon's name, along with Penguin's, are written in a messy font at the the top floor of the building. Kid's, Sanji's, Usopp's and Chopper's are written at the middle section of the building. Luffy's, Zoro's, Robin's, Shachi's and Nami's forged name are written at the bottom section, where they are expecting, hoping to find Corazon.

"Law-san will inform Doflamingo that he is willing to finally do the operation if he can guarantee Corazon's freedom," Shachi continues, momentarily glancing over at the quiet surgeon, "and while he takes his time preparing and 'performing' the operation to distract Doflamingo, we will be conducting the rest of the plan. The group assigned in the middle section will be on a lookout for any of the Donquixote members, while the third group will be at the lowest section in order to search for Corazon. But we need to be fast - fast enough to locate him and get him out before Doflamingo figures out that the operation is nothing but a glitch."

After taking a further minute to take it all in, Nami's eyebrows cross in sudden realization. She feels a vexed lump begin to form in the center of her throat. Her eyes immediately snap up to the group.

"Law," she utters, forcing down her gradually growing irritation, "Why am I assigned with Luffy's group?"

Her question seems to take everyone by surprise. Even Luffy's anxious bouncing comes to a rather abrupt halt. Everyone, that is, except the surgeon. He still refuses to look her in the eye - that glassy gaze is still blankly staring right through her.

"What do you mean, Naji-chan?" Penguin inquires gently as Law remains silent.

"Law," she repeats, her vexation now dawdling at the tip of her tongue, "With Luffy, Zoro, Robin and Shachi there, you and I are more than aware that I will not be needed. I'd be useless with their group."

Luffy releases an indignant huff, "Nami! Don't say that, you're never useless!"

Her fists clench in her lap. She believes him. She always believes Luffy. But it's different this time.

Upon hearing her last statement, the surgeon finally says, his voice placid, "That section of the plan is the most crucial. We don't know what to expect, which means the more in the group, the better. You will be needed."

"That's bullshit," she retorts, her fingers crumpling the paper's corners, "you want me to be with them to ensure my safety. So that I wouldn't get killed."

 _Does he see her as a burden?_

She pauses for a moment, her eyes studying his face with dire intensity before she, at last, says, "you don't trust me with an actual part in this, do you?"

"You're clearly underestimating your task," he responds, still calm, his gaze still blank.

"You and Shachi are the only ones facing Doflamingo," she retaliates, her voice rising with every word, "there are too many people assigned for the middle and bottom sections. Your group needs more back-up!"

She takes a deep breath, "Let me and Sanji join your group."

The cook's eyes meet hers in silent understanding. Nami is more than sure that Law and Penguin alone won't be able to go against Doflamingo.

Law's body turns rigid. The calmness in his eyes begins to seem forced. "That will not be happening."

"When Doflamingo figures out you won't be performing this surgery on him, then what? You'll be the one getting killed here, Law! When you, Luffy, Zoro and Sanji fought him, you were having trouble. How can you think this is smart?!"

A dreadful silence fills the living-room. For a split moment, Nami forgets that she and the surgeon aren't alone. Everyone is there. Listening. Her friends, his friends. She sounds like nothing but a stubborn mule. But at that point, she no longer cared. Not that her high voice is giving her away, not that her feelings are undoubtedly making themselves known through the subtle cracks in her tone. He is putting himself in complete danger and disregarding his own life. He is underestimating her abilities, making her feel like a fragile being in need of constant delicate care, as if she were susceptible to breaking any second. It infuriated her beyond words.

The familiar sight of thin swirls of smoke dancing their way through the heavy air brings her mind back to focus. Sanji shifts in his place on the couch, where he is seated rather uncomfortably between a frowning Zoro and a restless Chopper. Leisurely, his fingers slip the half smoked cigarette away from his teeth and instead settles it daintily between his index finger and thumb.

"Trafalgar," he begins, his voice a little husky from being quiet for so long, "as much as my heart aches to agree with your plan, to protect Nam...Naji-san," he corrects himself, "what he's saying is true, your group is small. It would be too risky."

Shachi clears his throat anxiously, "I agree...Law-san."

"Besides," a rather offended Usopp chimes into the argument, "I didn't bother crafting Naji's weapon for it to go to waste. You'll need the extra help, I'm sure."

"Tch…" Kid murmurs from where he stands, arms crossed, against one of the living-room walls, "adding a person to your group won't mess with your plan, sideburns. Quit being so damn bloody-minded."

Despite the fact that the majority of them have a clear stance of allowing Nami and Sanji to join him, his expression doesn't waver in the slightest. Throughout the argumentative conversation, his glazed look remained centered on the uneasy cartographer. The more his eyes bore through her, the more anxious and unexplainably hurt she becomes. He is being irrational. Obstinate. Unwilling to give her the chance of proving herself.

And why...why is he not _looking_ at her?

Even though his eyes are directed towards her, his gaze is somewhere else. Distracted. Yet somehow, still present and stubbornly determined not to back down from his original plan.

Nami realizes that if she stays in that room any longer, waiting in vain for him to say something, look at her, _anything_ , her temper will get the best of her. Her tapping foot comes to a stop. She eventually stands up, curls her slim fingers into tight, angry fists, and leaves the room.

Her hands immediately distract themselves by filling the coffee machine and snapping it on. Calming herself down has never been something she excelled in doing. Her friends are more than aware of that fact, which is usually why they tend to leave her alone when this state comes to life; it seems to be the only effective way to help her relax.

Then again, of course, those are her friends. They know her.

Eustass Kid, on the other hand, does not.

His grumbling, bulky body steps into the kitchen and after cursing -not at all too quietly- at how excessively small the size of the doorway is, he shoves his scarred hands into his pants pockets and snaps his sharp eyes up to look at her. The silence that follows irks her beyond belief. It is quite enough that her doctor refuses to acknowledge her, and now this crimson-headed bozo is happily adding to the fuel.

She slams the coffee pot down, "Gee, _what_?"

"Fucking hell, squirt, who shoved a stick up your ass?!" he barks back, paying no heed to Nami's clear-cut body signals that scream for him to _Go. Away._

A heavy sigh escapes her lungs as she takes a silent moment to regain part of her sanity before proceeding to pour the exceptionally dark coffee into her mug. Finally, after several more moments of him simply standing there and watching her prepare her cup of coffee with unusual interest, he speaks up.

"As pissed off as you are now, I can almost guarantee what I'm about to say is gonna slide in one ear and out the other. But listen here, ginger," he says, the new pet-name of his adding to her irritation perhaps more so than the current dilemma with her doctor, "I've known sideburns long enough to have the authority to say this. It's not that he doesn't trust you - I can at least say that much. But as sappy as this sounds, the situation with that Corazon of his gets him to start acting cautious. Err...overprotective over the people he gives a shit about."

Though his words are put rather bluntly and in a not-so-friendly approach, he now has her attention. That sounds a lot like Luffy.

"But if that were the case," she questions, eyeing her steaming hot beverage, "then he should be worrying just as much about Penguin."

Kid lets loose a dumb huff, "Penguin and Sideburns go way back. Ya can't blame him for trusting his closest friend with his life."

She knows she can't. Especially when she finds herself relating them to two of her own closest friends; Luffy and Zoro, who seem to bicker often but trust one another beyond her wildest imagination. Her tense body gradually begins to relax.

Of course, she will never let it be known that Kid - the one man she never thought possible to help her calm down, even though she secretly appreciates it - has made her understand the surgeon's situation a tad better. And despite her comprehension of his concern for them all, she is still determined to be of genuine help. She is not asking to fight Doflamingo - hell, even she knows she wouldn't be capable of that -, but she is asking to be a part of the plan. Not merely a burden he wants to keep away from trouble.

* * *

"Grab me those files, will you," the surgeon absently requests as he walks into the patients' room at the back of his humble office. Nami, her face and voice as distant and cool as his, straightens the files against his desk before carefully following him into the room. She hands them over to him. He doesn't look at her.

The carrying out of their plan is only three days away. No better time to bring it up.

She draws in a patient breath, "about the pla-"

"Today's shift is over. You can leave."

"I know that," she replies, a tad offended, her tone not so patient anymore, "but there's something about the plan I wanted to-"

"We spent an entire day going over it. Everything is done and decided," he cuts through her words yet again, his eyes swiftly scanning the files in his hands and successfully avoiding her gaze.

Her body stiffens with growing fury, "Will you quit interrupting and just hear me out?"

"I will not," he bluntly replies.

"For the love of God, I'm only asking for you to listen!" she shouts, demanding her clenched fists to stop shaking so fiercely. He twists around and flashes her a look of pure frustration. The first time he has regarded her with direct eye contact since she came back is with an expression she never sees him make. A look of un-sugarcoated distress. Her stomach twists into a tight knot.

"Nami-ya…" he sounds angry, "you are not going anywhere near Doflamingo...is that clear?"

"No," she hisses, taking two wide steps towards her doctor. "I'm not a helpless damsel, Law. I'm not even asking to go against him, for fuck's sake, but if you would just listen to what I have to sa-"

"We've discussed this. It's out of the question," he is clearly struggling to keep his voice from rising above hers.

 _It's so warm... Why is it so unbelievably hot in here?_ Nami's head suddenly feels drowsy. She feels angry. So _angry_ at him.

"Is that all you see me as?" she demands, a tint of hurt plunging itself into the words she never voiced out. She wants to understand. "A useless little girl in constant need of your protection?"

His hands start to shake. His jaw begins to clench and unclench with each of her accusing words. The tense energy lingering between them is heavy and overwhelming. Their eyes are locked with such strained contact it almost feels impossible to break.

"I'm in just as much danger either way. But I can actually be useful if you just let me!" his stubbornness is as solid and vigorous as hers. "Why is it that you've been refusing my help? Just what are you so afraid of?!"

"God _damn_ it, Nami!" his shell cracks and he yells at her for the first time.

Her thundering heartbeats come to a halt as the files in his hands drop to the floor.

He thrusts his fingers into her hair, yanks her head towards his and presses his lips against her own angrily quivering ones, pouring every ounce of the desperation and concern he feels that she just can't seem to grasp the dire honesty of into a fervent, pleading kiss.

He is terrified as hell of _losing her._

 _Why did it take this long for her to understand that?_

No words can describe the shock waves that are now excitedly pulsating through her body as she allows his tall figure to back her into the wall, feeling every shred of doubt or hesitance getting tugged away by the sincerity of his emotions.

Just like that, her anger dissolves, and replaces it an immediate understanding of everything he has been trying to get through to her for so long.

She doesn't waste a second to return his kiss just as eagerly, to clutch onto his collar and pull him down, wanting him closer, _closer_ than he already is. The instant she returns the gesture, his body no longer holds back. He sneaks his hand up her waist and tugs her body towards him so that it collides with his throbbing chest. His other hand grips her hair tighter. The movements of his lips quickly become stronger and more demanding.

Nami is not in the least bit aware of herself as she traces her fingers up his neck and yanks his hat off, wanting nothing more than to run her hands through his muddled hair, to feel every bit of him. The sound of her heart thumping against her chest is almost deafening. Never before in her life has she felt so strongly about someone. Never has it crossed her mind that she could want someone so badly. The way his hands take over feels magnificent; cautious not to hurt her yet eager as they slide up her back, tangle chaotically with her hair and seize her by the chin to keep her face just where it belongs; attached to his own. The little hairs on his chin tickle her skin over and over again as their lips push against each other with fiery greed, as if despite the closeness of their bodies, it still doesn't feel close enough.

She finds herself so blinded by how absorbed and melted into him she is that she scarcely notices him shifting her away from the wall and towards the patients` bed. Their bodies crash carelessly into metal trays and apparatus. But they ignore it, all of it; they don't make a single move that can possibly tear them away from each other. Not now. Not after so much time of holding back, after so much time of yearning.

"Well, well...it seems as though I arrived at a bad time," the sickeningly familiar, shrill sound of Doflamingo's voice seeping through his never-wavering leer compels their mouths to part in panting breaths and their bodies to stiffen in pure dread, soon turning as rigid as a pair of stone bricks.

 _Since when has he been there?_

A thousand emotions erupt inside of the now panicked redhead; fear, insecurity for being caught so vulnerable, and the most strongly felt: anger. Law, his body uncharacteristically stuck in an intimate position on top of Nami, with her cradled right between his plastered arms, his lips hovering only inches away from her own, sends the cartographer a firm look. She can sense a deeply irked aura forming around his body, but that only serves as more fuel to the look he's giving her; a look so determined, so sure that it catches her off guard. A look that says: It's now or never.

Her eyes widen.

She understands.

His warm breaths brush against her lips as he gives her one last, intent gaze filled with both unmistakable craving and a tint of soft relief. Relief that even with their current situation, Nami's heart can't help but be overwhelmed with. She nearly chokes on the swamps of emotions building in her chest.

 _He has never looked so handsome._

But then the look is gone. His face returns to his custom cool; a look of venomous hatred as he carefully picks himself off of her and turns to face the man that has caused him so much pain, so much _aching_ for so long.

Mind still dazed, Nami slides off the patients' bed, feeling her hair sticking out in odd places as she stands pressed up against the wall, her hands clutching the side of her now wrinkled shirt.

"I'm sure you know exactly why I'm here, Law," the blonde bastard taunts, ignoring the previous happenings and taking slow, steady steps towards the surgeon. Nami's heart clenches.

"Doflamingo," Law says, his voice dripping with his ever-known calm as he takes a shielding step in front of Nami and lifts his hands to fix his bent collar, "free Cora-san...and I will give you my life."

* * *

 _ **heheheheh :)) Thank you for reading c:!**_


	14. Chapter 14

_**Chapter 14**_

"Pick up, pick up, _pick up_!" her voice murmurs into her shaking phone as she gives up on the elevator and races towards the wretched flight of stairs. Her frantic heart is hammering against her chest like never before. Everything happened so quickly. Panicked thoughts have nearly taken over the sanity of her brain. But there is absolutely no time for her to waste struggling to process things because right now only one thing matters.

For her friends to answer the _fucking phone_.

Nami finally hears the heavenly sound of a click, followed by gentle shuffling from the other end.

"Zoro? You there?" she blurts into the speaker, ignoring the confused nurses eyeing her suspiciously as she zips down the flight of stairs with frenzied hair, flushed cheeks and a hustled tone of voice. A weary groan grunts in response.

"Plan changed and we need you. You have to get everyone to the hospital. And tell Usopp to grab my weapon."

"E-Eh," he grumbles, clearly vexed for having his nap interrupted - _that jerk, he was supposed to be her pick up today_ \- , "...Nami?"

"Now!"

She hangs up and proceeds to force her shivering fingers to dial Shachi's number. Her mind flocks with thousands of curses as she struggles to call. She suppresses a wince and ignores the throbbing pain as her elbow collides with the stair railing. It takes a solid minute for her to finally manage to get the phone ringing, and another unnecessarily long minute until he picks up.

"Hey, Na-"

"Shachi! Law needs-"

Her words are abruptly interrupted by a harsh slam into something tall, curvy, and chuckling rather eerily. Fingers shaking and words stuck at the tip of her tongue, Nami lifts her head and is instantly greeted by the shrill sight of Monet's disturbingly bright yellow eyes. Her stomach churns with anger.

"In a rush, dear?" she inquires, the amusement dancing in her tone of voice as clear and sharp as day. Nami's hands clutch onto the phone against her ear as she silently prays that Shachi is able to hear Monet's words.

She forces a collected expression, "I am, actually. I've been called for a family emergency."

Monet hums curiously, the suspicious smile gracing her lips not wavering in the slightest, "were you, now?...Well then, you must hurry. Forgive me for holding you back."

 _'Forgive me' my ass_ , Nami mentally spits back before forcing herself to regard the smirking woman with a strained smile then make a swift detour around her, shove the staircase door open and step onto the first floor. Her breaths are shaking furiously as she puts the phone back to her ear.

It almost feels as if she let her pass too easily.

"Shachi-"

"It's fine, I got it. We'll be there," he replies, his tone of voice a bit frenzied but tinted with a hint of reassurance that, despite being so small, Nami finds herself soaking in and appreciating. She nods to herself as he hangs up and she slips the phone back into her pocket.

According to her watch, Chopper's shift was supposed to finish exactly four minutes ago. Her pace quickens towards his office as worries jam themselves into the pit of her thoughts once more.

She has no way of knowing whether her doctor's okay or not. They have all seen Doflamingo's fighting potential. If he, in anyway, begins to suspect Law's offer, the plan will endure an instant crash. And that can't happen. They won't let it. The mental reminder that the odds are mostly in Law's favor - since Doflamingo is neither a doctor nor has he ever witnessed an operation such as this - works as somewhat of a reassurance to her muddled mind.

Releasing a depleted breath, she finally reaches Chopper's small office and, not bothering to knock, opens the door and is disappointed to find it locked.

He is gone already.

"God, damn it," she curses not at all too shyly as she slips her phone out again, whirls around and is both surprised and pleased to find none-other than her said friend gazing at her from his endearing three-foot height. A partially relieved, partially panicked sound escapes her lips as she puts her phone back away and bends down to face him.

"Nami, are you okay? Do you need a check up?!" he begins to blurt out with his ever concerned inquiries as he slips out a thermometer from his cute white coat the minute he notices how flushed her face looks. She shakes her head and ushers for him to put it away.

"No, I'm fine," she replies, crouching closer to him and lowering her voice as doctors pass by, "we're executing the plan a little early."

His face falls into slight confusion, "Early?"

She nods, "Aha. Like, now."

His eyes widen, "N-Now?"

"Listen, we don't have much time. The guys should be on their way, but I'm gonna get a head start," she explains hurriedly, pausing for a moment to set her face into a calmer, more reassuring expression for the sake of the now heavy breathing reindeer, "you can wait at the hospital's parking lot for them to arrive. You don't have to get into position until they get here, okay?"

Chopper's previously frightened features turn into stubborn stone. He straightens his posture and shakes his head, "No! I'll get into position right away!"

Nami smiles and gives his pink hat a soft pet, "Yosh... let's do our best."

And with that, each go their way.

In her case, she first makes her way towards the janitor's hall, where she should find all the keys she needs. She needs the keys to all the rooms - broom closets, any empty patient rooms, operation rooms, offices - because there is absolutely no saying where or how they are going to find a passage way to the underground prison.

They have already confirmed its existence - all the evidence of the hospital's structure and Doflamingo's plan to keep Law working so close by proves it. So at this point, it's no longer a question of whether it's there or not. It's a matter of how to get there.

Nami un-wrinkles her apparel, pads down her rather tangled hair and walks through the first floor as she normally does. She has already made quite a number of her co-workers weirded out by her frenzied behavior - any more suspicious eyes and the plan will hit rock bottom. She regards her fellow nurses and doctors with polite waves and smiles as she fast walks down the hallways. Her eyes finally spot a janitor -a plump, sweet woman- pushing a cleaning cart towards one of the janitor closets, and so she quickly, but casually, detours around any walking patients and workers to finally reach her.

She puts on her friendliest smile before placing her hand on the woman's shoulder and commenting, as affectionately as her stressed tone can muster, "wonderful job cleaning the first floor today...I do hope work is treating you well."

The janitor stops several feet away from the closet to turn and beam cheerfully back at Nami, "oh, what a sweet young lady you are."

Nami's heart freezes.

 _Lady._

Her head snaps down to her chest and she is horrified - no, infuriated with herself- to find that the slightest hint of two bumps are showing through her shirt. Her stretch band must have gotten loose when she and Law...

Her cheeks heat up.

No, it should be fine. It must only be visible if someone's up close - otherwise her co-workers would have given her the stinky eye. Besides, there are more important things to worry about at this point. She needs to find an excuse to get into the janitor's closet.

And this woman is her only chance.

Nami collects herself and stops the janitor before she begins pushing the cart again to say, "you must be tired, ma'am. Let me help you push it the rest of the way."

"Oh no, dear, I've been doing this for years," she says, making Nami's heart nearly squeeze itself with sympathy, "It's only a few steps away. Go on with your own job, then! Don't busy yourself with me!"

"I insist," Nami pushes, and though she feels empathetic towards the woman, there really isn't any time to waste. Her impatience begins to dialate as the woman proceeds with pushing the cart and declining her offer. Any more coaxing from Nami and even this oblivious old lady will figure out that something is off.

"Really, I'd love to hel-"

"Ahh, if it isn't a woman in need of her knight!" a relievingly familiar voice comes swooning from behind them. She whirls around and is more than happy to find Sanji, with his well-fitted, polished suit -and a rather random backpack hanging from his shoulders-, standing a few feet away from her and the janitor. She can't help but beam at the knowing wink he sends her before making his way around the plump woman so that he faces her with his infamous charm.

"What lovely earrings, madam!" he begins operation woo old woman, successfully recieving her attention and coaxing her to turn around to look at him, "I must ask where you purchased them. You see, my sweet-heart has been wanting a pair of earrings ever since..."

The dialogue practically goes blank to Nami's ears as she seizes the opportunity to scan the woman's waist line for any dangling key. When she doesn't spot any, she turns her searching eyes towards the cart, where she finally locates a single key hanging loosely by a rather thin cord of string. Her eyes sparkle eagerly as she makes a swift move of her hand to grab the key and hurriedly check if Sanji still has her hooked onto him. Once she does, her feet sneak her away from behind the cart and down the hallway towards the janitor's room. There can only be so much Sanji can distract the woman with, so she has to hurry.

Cautious not to make too much noise unlocking and opening the door, she quietly steps in and gets to work scanning the walls for the keys. It takes her a mere second to spot them dangling on the opposite side of the door. Soon after, she walks out, gently shuts the door and twists it locked, but just as she turns around, she spots a grinning Luffy standing a few feet behind Sanji, waving, and starting to scream at the top of his lungs, "Heeeey! We're he-"

Her panicking heart thanks the heavens Kid shows up just in time to slam his hand against her best friend's mouth, clamp it shut and pull him away. She then quickly stuffs the key hoop into her back pocket and releases a depleated sigh.

Now that Luffy has made his entrance, things are guaranteed not to go as planned.

And though a part of her remains anxious because of that, another part of her knows it will be just fine. It _always_ is when it comes to him.

She makes her final move to return, slip the janitor room's key back onto the cart and flash Sanji a nod.

He catches her eye long enough to understand, regard the woman with one last smile and say, "that's an excellent idea, I'll keep that in mind. Thank you, madam, for allowing me to take so much of your precious time!"

The woman shifts bashfully and lifts her hand to her lips, covering her soft giggling, "oh, anything for a gentleman such as you, dear."

He gives his head a slight bow in respect before turning around and walking away with Nami. She keeps her eyes and posture as professional as possible as she strolls quietly next to him.

"I got the keys," she whispers, flashing another co-worker an acknowledging nod before continuing, "has everyone arrived?"

He nods, "we came inside in groups of three - made ourselves to be visitors. Except the moron Luffy, he just barged in and Kid had to run in after him."

She does a knowing cursery roll of her eyes as they make a sharp turn into the patients' hallway, "wouldn't expect anything less out of him. Everyone's waiting at the staircase like we planned?"

"As planned, Nami-san" he replies with a little trill at the end of her name before gently sliding off the backpack and handing it to her, "here's your weapon."

 _So that's what it is._

She nods in thank you. They eventually reach the staircase and open the door.

And all of them are being so. _Unbelievably. Loud._

Nami makes a sharp, loud _Shhhhhhhh!_ as she shuts the staircase door, jams it locked with her weapon and whirls around to face them with a fiery glare, "why in God's name is everyone so noisy?!"

Luffy's laughs halt. Usopp's complaints die off. Kid's grumbling doesn't stop - but does, fortunately, decrease. Zoro and Robin are perhaps the only quiet ones. Shachi and Penguin turn away from their hushed conversation to face her with two pairs of concerned eyes.

She draws in a deep breath.

"I know you guys are confused. This was really sudden. But it was Law's decision, and he really needs us right now. So..." after giving a quick check to make certain they weren't in the camera's view, she rolls her sleeves up, slips her weapon out of the door handle and slams it into the pavement to further grasp their attention, "Is everyone perfectly clear of their positions and parts in the plan?"

The group regard her with nods -or a salute, in Luffy's case- along with two synchronized grunts from the armcrossed Zoro and Kid. She responds with an affirmitive nod of her own.

"Yosh. Here we go!"

* * *

Her hand flies away from her side and hooks onto Zoro's collar, "this way, dumbass."

Zoro turns around just in time to avoid slamming into yet another unfortunate corner. He grunts as they jog towards the first patient room they plan to check, "Why the sudden change in plan?"

"Well, Doflamingo showed up and..." she pauses for a moment. Even she doesn't know why Law felt the sudden need to carry it out so soon. He isn't the reckless type, "I guess the circumstances just felt right. So Law just went for it."

"And you contacted me as soon as that happened?"

She nods, "the minute I left the office."

"You were supposed to have finished your shift long before that," he says, his voice shifting from inquiresome to slightly suspicious as they finally reach the room, "Why were you still at the hospital? Whenever I don't show up, you take a cab."

She remains silent.

"Are you sure Trafalgar didn't know Doflamingo was coming?" he presses, "We've fought that bastard and I know how dangerous he can be. Nami, if that doctor of yours knew and put you in dange-"

"That's not it," she interrupts, slipping the correct key into the lock and twisting it open, making sure to avoid her friends' firm, questioning gaze, "we just...got caught up with something. He didn't know."

"Caught up with what, Nami? How can you be sure it wasn't to stall you?"

She shoves the door open and hustles in, "just drop it. He didn't know, alright? He wouldn't put me in danger. Besides, you wouldn't be going along with this plan if you distrusted him this much. So just quit being so doubtful!"

He releases a cynical breath as they step in and close the door after them. But he doesn't push the subject any further.

And thank God for that because Nami is not about to drop the bomb of _"With what? Nothing really, I was just caught up making out with him. But don't worry, you can still trust him, I promise!"_ to him of all people.

She cringes. _Hell no._

But it is at that moment that she it hits her how remarkably red her entire being is and it dawns on her just how indescribably embarrassed and shamelessly giddy she feels over what happened.

The mere act of remembering it makes her heart beats go wild. How she is going to face him again is beyond her.

"Just how the hell are we supposed to find this doorway, again?" Zoro's harsh inquiry shoves her back into reality as he slams the closet door shut.

 _Focus, Nami._

She turns to face him, "After we figured out how close Corazon turned out to be, I started to get a feel of Doflamingo's style," she replies, scanning the room as she continues, "he always makes us overthink, but the answer is usually obvious. So obvious that it wouldn't normally occur to us..."

Her words fade out as she sticks the pieces of her weapon into her belt-loops and bends down, "like under the bed, maybe behind a shelf or..."

...

Six rooms.

Ten rooms.

Forty minutes.

An hour.

 _Two hours_ pass by.

And for the love of God, none of their group members has gotten even the slightest bit close to figuring out where the door could possibly be. The more time passes, the more urgently they all search, the more fearful Nami becomes for the life of the surgeon. Operations can go on for hours. Fake operations can't. Not only that, but they have been wandering the hospital for so long that people are bound to have figured out the peculiarity of it all.

She has to think.

 _Think outside the box._

Her phone buzzes harshly through her pocket, practically making her jump out of her skin with it being so quiet around her. She finally picks up: _Shachi._

"Did you find anything?" Nami inquires, beckoning for Zoro to proceed with the search.

"There's a very big possibility we did. We heard a hollow sound beneath our steps in one of the emergency rooms...the door could be right below the floorboards in this spot," he explains, his tone of voice not as hopeful as she would have wanted it to sound, "but it could be anything. We need a third opinion before we blow our cover and wreck the floor. I'll send you the spot we're in."

Nami's breaths are so hurried and anxious that she scarcely remembers to respond before he hangs up and messages her the exact room he and Luffy are now located in. Her face lights up with hope as she kicks Zoro's bent back and yells for him to hurry. She shouldn't have her hopes up; she knows, but anything, _anything_ is going to get them closer to the answer. Even if it were another fluke.

She and her direction-impaired friend soon slam open the door and run out - and it is then that their previously hidden troubles finally make an appearance.

Nami's steps halt.

 _Diamante._

For a moment, Zoro seems a tad confused towards her sudden stop and alarm, but he quickly catches on as he turns his head and watches a wide, filthy smirk growing knowingly onto the large man's red-striped face. Zoro's hand immediately snaps to his hidden sword.

"Naji, was it?" Diamante's hoarse voice begins as his eyes travel up and down the cartographer's stone-brick body, "quite the curvy body for a boy, I must say."

Nami refuses to allow her fear to show itself. She forces a professional smile, "excuse us, we were heading towards an emergency room."

"Ah yes, I know you were," his tone of voice tells her that that isn't the only thing he knows. Her stomach churns and stops at an uncomfortable jumble, "but you're not going anywhere now, brat."

The last word comes so unexpectedly that her body scarcely manages to dodge the swing of a large, razor sharp sword flying towards her now horror-struck face. Her knees falter and she falls to the floor. And the next thing she knows, just as her mind finally realizes what he just did and what just happened, Zoro has unsheathed his sword and begun his head on fight with Diamante.

Doctors and nurses strolling the hallway start to run and break into screams of panic.

"Nami, get up!" Zoro yells, receiving yet another deafening blow from the laughing man, "leave this shit-ass to me and go!"

Nami nods, her hands shaking as they move to slip her weapon out of her jeans and help her back on her feet. And then she dashes - runs as fast as she can, because now none of her co-workers matter, definitely not her now completely obvious breasts, _nothing_ -. It is taking everything in Zoro to keep the man from coming after her and she can't let him down.

And so she runs with _everything_ she has.

No soul in the hospital is not panicking by now. Her phone begins to buzz again. She ignores it. Her slipping feet make the last turn and she finally arrives at the exact room. Her shaking fingers curl around the door handle and she shoves it open.

Shachi, his phone to his ear, and Luffy, his eyes dancing with excitement, whirl around and face her, "ah, you're here!" the former says, hanging up, "Where's Zoro?"

"Fighting Diamante," she snaps, slamming the door shut then quickly scanning the floor, "we don't have time, Shachi, where is it? Where's the spot?"

He makes the right decision of not asking further questions as he quickly points to the furthest corner of the room. She hustles towards the said place, drops to the floor and presses her ear against the tile floor. Her other hand slams her weapon into it.

A loud, hollow echo quickly flutters back to her ear. Her panicking heart beats increase in hope as she pushes herself up and looks at her best friend, "alright, Luffy. Do your thing."

A moonlit grin soon glows across his lips as they take several steps away from him and allow him to make his move. His left hand grips his right bicep as his fist circles around in equal, speeding whirls.

" _Gomu gomu no_..." his shouting voice only increases in volume as his feet hurl him towards the corner and he shouts, "pistol!"

His fist slams with incredible strength against the ceramic floor. The force feels so great that both Nami and Shachi are forced to spin their bodies around as the battered debris flies towards them and dust ruptures into the once cleansed air of the hospital. As it finally settles, the chaos and screams heard throughout the building skyrocket - but as panicked as they sound, they shouldn't be in danger. Originally, the plan was to be as quiet as possible. But now that Diamante has made his appearance, Nami is certain that their presence and plan will be brought to Doflamingo's notice very soon - if it hasn't already.

Penguin by now is close to where Law should be "performing" the surgery, but it isn't enough. All along she has known it wouldn't be enough to protect him.

She turns her head towards Shachi, her eyes rising to gaze at him pleadingly, "please, Shachi...you and Kid-"

"Don't worry about it," he cuts through her words, places a comforting hand against her hunched arm and hands her a flashlight, "we'll go to him. Now get going - you and Luffy-san."

She sends him a grateful smile, turns around and drops into the hole after her friend. The instant she lands on her feet, opens her squinting eyes as her thumb switches the light on, her stomach makes both an excited and downright nervous jump. They have found the entrance; and Luffy has already gone yelling enthusiastically down the unlit, dusty tunnel.

Nami curses under her breath, adjusts her weapon into her belt loops and dashes after him. They have to make it. They _have_ to find Corazon.

* * *

It has been thirteen years since Law last felt his nerves feeling so chaotically wrecked. Thirteen years, exactly, since he last felt this unbelievable surge of hate and the sickening ache of blood-thirst towards the man he once begged to accept him as one of his own. It almost seems ironic, the fact that he has now come this close to being able to strangle him with his very bare hands, yet still can't.

Doflamingo strips the upper half of his body and lays down defiantly atop the surgical table.

His lips curl into his infamous leer, "three of the Donquixote top executives are standing right outside the door of this room, Law. This operation room in particular is lined completely with sea-prism stone. And in my hand, right now..."

He lifts his bulky hand to reveal a small box centered with a single red switch latched securely around his wrist, "is a button that can lead to blowing up this entire building."

Law's previously collected expression turns into solid rock ice.

"So, if...by any chance this happens to be a scam," Doflamingo pauses for a long, lingering moment as the softest of chuckles finds its way out through his clenched teeth, "you, Corazon, and all your little friends will meet your end."

* * *

 _Thank you all for being so patient C:! I traveled back to my homeland [Jordan] this summer, so I've been caught up with loads of things! IN ANY CASE, I'm really excited to write the next few chapters, and though this one took me ages to finish up and was a tad of a pain in the ass because I kinda stink at action-based scenes, I also had a good time typing it up *^*!  
Annnd THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONSTANT SUPPORT ;D!  
_...  
 _ **Guest Reviewers - Replies:**_

Queen: Ahh, yes, his teasing is so much fun to write LOL. Thank you so much for your kind words. Gahhhhfkghfdkj ;_; I'm so happy you enjoyed it!  
Lexi: Trust me, the "not so out right flirting"is one my favorite things to write with these two XD Thank you for your sweet words and support :D!


	15. Chapter 15

_**Chapter 15**_

The further down they walk, the colder and more eerily quiet it becomes. Nami wasn't exactly expecting any less, though what _does_ seem off is how easy it all seems; that they have managed to come this far with absolutely zero intervention. With every step she takes -or in Luffy's case, with every leap- she has felt dread slowly force its way down her throat to form a nice, decent sized lump that, for whatever reason, she can't seem to do away with. She twitches each time a piece of battered rock detaches itself from the roof and falls with a loud clunk on the ground, sending a long, uncanny echo throughout the rest of the tunnel. And it is in no way helpful that her rubber friend jerks his head around at unpredictable times to look at her, but instead compels her to get spooked and yelp when the gleam of her flashlight brightens his features and causes freaky-ass shadows to take form. He makes it that much more frustrating by breaking into fits of laughter.

And it _definitely_ doesn't help knowing her phone is out of service - though, once again, it doesn't come as a surprise. Nevertheless, she feels no need for it as she has no doubt that Shachi will be sending the rest of her group down as soon as he can.

Because God knows what will be waiting for them at the end of this godforsaken tunnel.

"Nami," Luffy's voice echoes back from where he had run off past her only moments before, "I found a door!"

Her grip around the flashlight tightens anxiously as she forces her reluctant feet to move and hastily make way towards her friends' deafening voice.

"Quiet down, Luffy," she hisses upon reaching him, but quiets down as her eyes take in the sight of a thick metal door with a lock double the size of her head, latched tightly around what appeared to be a round handle. Judging by the mere look of it, the combination of the lock will not only be tricky to figure out, but the door itself will require good strength to roll open. She trusts herself to be able to figure out the first chunk of that, but Luffy -and hopefully their coming comrades- will have to deal with the rest.

"Direct this towards the lock," she instructs her friend, handing over the flashlight and pointing briefly towards the door as she rolls her sleeves up, "but keep your ears perked for anyone coming, got it?"

Upon registering his nod, she gets to work. It takes her roughly ten minutes of merely staring at it to finally figure out its general mechanism before getting to the hard part - actually picking the lock and getting the damn door open. Despite knowing that getting overwhelmed by how nerve-wrecked she is with worry over how late her friends are, and having zero knowledge on whether the surgeon is currently dead or alive will get her absolutely _nowhere_ , her body still manages to panic. Her hands, now holding a pair of bobby pins and tinkering with the stiff lock, seem unable to halt their shaking as the tunnel fills with whispers of her most colorful curses. Her already thin temper starts to falter as Luffy's feet begin to shuffle restlessly against the dusty ground. Nami tells herself to ignore it as she yanks a third bobby-pin out of the now shredded nest atop her head and proceeds with her tinkering. And then he starts to hum.

" _Shhh_ ," she orders, nudging him to bring the light closer to view of the lock. She can tell, her efforts aren't being spent in vain - she can practically hear the click of getting it unlocked. But he keeps on humming. Her fingers curl around the bobby pins in an angry clasp.

"For God's sake, Luffy, I need to focus!" she snaps as she whirls her head around to send him a strict glare, but then suffers from a momentary halt. Her rubber friend is merely standing there, flashing the light gently at the lock as she has asked him to and staring at her quite dumbfounded-ly. He _isn't_ humming. Someone else is.

And the soft humming is slowly, but surely, becoming louder and more vibrant by the second. Alarmed, Nami presses her index finger to her lips in a gesture of silence to Luffy as he cocks his head and turns around to flash the light towards the way they came. Her teeth find their way to her lips, where they begin to gnaw at it anxiously as the sound of light steps reach her ears. Everything is so quiet that she can only focus on the said sounds and her own heavy breathing. A panicked thought then strikes her mind.

 _What if that's Monet?_

Though she has never witnessed her in a fight, Law has made it clear that she is a loyal subject of the Donquixote family, and capable of a lot more damage than what her appearance may suggest. And unless Nami gets the combination of this lock figured out, and despite having faith in both her and Luffy's abilities - they are sure to be cornered. The humming stops. A shadow slowly begins to reveal itself several feet away.

Nami braces herself.

"I...I think I'm lost..." a child-like, distressed tone of voice comes slamming into the cartographer's heart as a three foot tall, sniffling little girl appears from the shadows - instantly confusing Nami. Her turquoise hair frames her chubby cheeks in the most endearing manner, and along with the furry red cloak draping daintily from around her shoulders and her quivering watery eyes, she looks to be as innocent and astray as a homeless puppy. Nami's previously uptight features dissolve into ones of sympathy and understanding. She nudges for Luffy to scoot over as she takes a step closer to the girl and bends down to face her - though she stays a good ten feet away to momentarily contemplate the rather out of place bowl of grapes in the girl's hands.

"What are you doing here?" she asks softly, thinking perhaps she has been a patient at the hospital and the curiosity of a child is what got her here. The girl takes a step closer, still sniffling pitifully.

"I want mama...and papa!" she cries out, her soft crying quickly turning into heavy, erratic sobs.

 _Something seems off_ , a thought wanders aimlessly at the back of Nami's mind, _she seems familiar._ She tilts her head in a gesture of empathy, takes the smallest of steps closer and says, "don't worry now, we can manage to get you out."

The little girl's sobbing subsides within a second -too quick for it to make sense -, and replaces it a rather wide, appreciative smile, "that's so nice of you, Miss. Please accept some of my grapes as a thank you!"

"Ooo, I'll have some!" a rather crave-filled expression replaces the previously dumbfounded demeanor of Luffy as he maneuvers cautiously around Nami and hastens towards the beaming little girl.

Realization then hits the cartographer like a sharp arrow to the head.

It was on the second day of her new job as his nurse - the day she decided to follow him and prove herself worthy of being his assistant- that she found him operating on a little green haired girl too eerily similar to the one now standing a few feet away from her. That in and of itself doesn't say much - but the fact that the surgeon reprimanded the receptionist that day and insisted he never again be asked to perform surgery on the said girl, along with her exceptionally odd behavior is what compels Nami to reach out, grab Luffy by the collar and forcefully yank him back.

"Nami, wha-"

"Don't go anywhere near her," she insists, tightening her grip on the fabric of his shirt to be certain he doesn't attempt to break away. Her mind can't seem to wrap around the idea that such a small person can possibly cause them any harm, and it makes it that much harder that the said child's eyes instantly break into a pool of tears and once again her sobs fill the tunnel, succeeding in jamming a sense of pure guilt down Nami's throat. But she can't risk shaking off the feeling that something just isn't quite right.

"She said we could have some," Luffy demands in a rather whiny tone of voice, "Nami, let go of me...I'm _hungry_!"

"Luffy, just-" she whispers into his ear, pausing upon realizing she has no way of explaining her current dilemma. She sighs, "Just trust me on this, alright? I can't put my finger on it, but there's something off."

The smallest pout prunes onto his lips, but he makes no move in protest - he trusts her, and she can't be more thankful, especially when the girl's cries dilate as she proceeds to take closer steps and extends her childlike fingers towards them. In normal circumstances, a child's cry would get to her bigtime. But time is running out, and if Nami doesn't manage to get them past this goddamn _door_ -

"Luffy...Nami!" Usopp's voice abruptly comes blaring from somewhere far - countless feet down the tunnel, " _RUN!_ "

The panic finally sets in. Within a second, her fingers leave Luffy's collar and whirl around back to the lock - now working three times faster than they were only minutes before. He is either telling them to run from something coming; or for a reason she is currently oblivious to, from the currently blubbering little girl. Either way, it isn't part of her plans to stay and find out. They can hear the pounding of several feet dashing down the tunnel towards them; and she can only hope that they belong to the people they trust.

"Come _on_ ," she hisses to the lock, shoving the third bobbypin for the last time and finally hearing a loud, heavenly chink. Her shoulders lift with excitement; she did it, she managed to figure it out. A grin flashes brightly across her face despite the direness of their situation and she turns around to tell-

Nami pauses for a brief moment; her mind drawing a sudden blank.

 _Who is she expecting to find behind her? She's been on her own this entire time._

On her own, that is, minus the little girl whose sobs, until moments before, were diffusing powerfully across the tunnel. Now, however, her cries have subsided and instead, Nami finds the little girl gaping amusedly at a toy very much resembling a circus monkey; the cartographer wouldn't have given it too much thought, perhaps even disregarded it as the girl's way of distracting herself, if it weren't for the way the doll jerked around in a rather distorted way, almost as if it were trying to get a message around. But that can't be it; it's nothing but a toy. Her hands clasp around her weapons as the girl turns her attention away from the toy and towards her. Except this time around, she regards her with a rather unsuited smirk for a girl her age.

"Your turn now," she simply says, dropping her bowl of grapes and reaching out with her slim fingers towards Nami. Now certain of her suspicions, and quite alarmed by them despite being unaware of what 'her turn' means, the cartographer slips her weapon out and assembles it into a single pole. She bites down on the side of her cheek; never in her life would she have imagined herself ready and actually willing to electrify a child. She loves and has loved children all her life. But every single aspect about this one is screaming _danger_ ; and she can't ignore it.

The sounds of her friends' bolting steps dilate in volume as they finally reach her; Usopp, Sanji and Robin come in view with expressions of alarm and panic, which instantly double in severity as they take in the sight of Nami and the little girl.

"Nami-san!"

"I'll take care of her," her long-nosed friend declares as he slips his ever-known slingshot out of his back-sack, clasps his left eye shut and aims it at the now startled girl staring back at him. He makes the briefest eye-contact with Nami, begging her to trust him, to which she responds by nodding, twisting her pole around and pointing its tip at the girl's back.

Her knuckles turn a pale white as her fingers grasp at her weapon and her eyes clamp shut with silent guilt.

" _Gust... sword!_ " she shouts as a sharp flurry of wind shoots out of her _Clima-Tact_ and slams into the girl's back, instantly forcing a childish shriek to plummet out her lips. At the distraction, her two remaining comrades run past Usopp and towards Nami, where they begin assisting her with opening the ton weighing metal door; Robin sprouts several arms while Sanji rolls his sleeves up and gets a good grip of the handle.

Usopp then pulls on his slingshot, grits his teeth and yells, "Good luck recovering from this, toy-girl!... _Hot sauce star!_ "

A crimson red tablet shoots from his weapon, zips with a flash across the tunnel and zooms into the said girl's screaming mouth. For two long minutes, a deadly silence fills the area with nothing but the struggling of her two friends as they attempt their hardest to open the door to serve as distraction. Gradually, the girl's face takes on a faint shade of pink which no sooner than later turns into a deep red; her eyes well up with tears and her voice finally comes out in a piercing screech so loud Nami finds herself forced to drop her weapon and slam her hands to her now surely deafened ears.

A firm hand startles her as it wraps around her wrist and compels her to turn around.

"We got it open, Nami-san. Usopp can handle this, just leave it to him!" Sanji's voice yells over the little girl's distressed cries that Nami still can't help but feel beyond guilty over. But she nods, bends down to grab her _Clima-Tact_ and scurries after her friends beyond the now opened doorway.

* * *

"Mind filling me in?" she inquires hastily, not bothering to hide the slight impatience from dripping out her voice as they enter a hallway now seemingly more in-tact and lit by several lanterns hanging loosely from the walls. Their hurried steps slowly come to a rhythmic fast walk as they take in their surroundings and give them a good look-over. Her first worry comes down to cameras: she is certain Doflamingo would have them crawling across the entire prison. They need to be extra careful.

"Ah, the girl," Sanji finally answers upon catching his breath, "according to Shachi, she's part of the Donquixote family. I wasn't there to hear the full explanation...Robin-chan?"

"From what I understood, she's a devil-fruit user who turns living beings into toys," explains Robin briefly, crossing her arms and gracefully taking over the job of keeping watch from a distance, "unfortunately, that's all the information Shachi-kun had. But it was enough for us to gain a good comprehension of her danger."

Nami's brows cross in mild perplexity; was that toy monkey thrashing helplessly, perhaps a person once? _If so, who is it?_

Something in her mind feels off; as if a perfect blank, or an empty space now occupies part of her thoughts that she can't seem to fill in or place her finger on. But she disregards it; this isn't the time to dwell on it. She nods in affirmation and continues to eye the hallway. It seems to be dragging on forever; an endless road that gets colder and colder the further down they walk. In fact, it seems to be becoming _ridiculously_ cold. Nami slides her hands up her arms and rubs them in dire hope of gaining some warmth.

"Ah, my sweetest Nami-san! Your knight will happily give up his jacket for you!" her blonde friend cries happily as he slips his blazer off and daintily drapes it around her shoulders.

"Thank you, Sanji-kun," she cracks a smile, appreciating the gesture and his usual bubbly-self despite their rather serious circumstances.

They finally come to a wide, open doorway. The three of them make an abrupt halt at detecting Nami's spreading arms to stop them in their track. Beyond them lies a scarcely lit, perfectly rectangular cell, and her heart practically skips a beat from the sudden realization of who _has_ to be in there. _Could they have finally found him?_ Her head pops carefully into the doorway and works its way around, scanning for cameras, guards, _anything_. Nothing's there; and that in and of itself screams trap. But they have no other choice than to press on. Thus, after trading looks and receiving affirmations from both her friends, Nami, along with her two equally cautious comrades, steps out of the hallway and towards the dim-lit cell.

And it is at that moment that the temperature drops so suddenly Nami feels her breath get practically ripped out her lungs. The walls around them spread in an alarming speed with a thin layer of frost; and God only knows how the lanterns haven't blown out along with it.

"What's going on?" she hisses through her now rattling teeth.

Her irises dilate, and her skin crawls with a familiar, unmistakably distinct wave of chills. She has her answer.

"A family emergency, was it, Naji-kun?" the shrill sound of Monet's voice cuts through her panicked thoughts as the said woman steps out from the hallway and brings in the ever piercing cold the surgeon so carefully warned Nami of. The receptionist's blindingly sharp yellow eyes droop ever-so-slightly as she chuckles through her tightly shut mouth, glides her tongue across her upper lip with a vile, blood-thirsty look and says, "do allow me to join in on the fun."

* * *

 _This took ridiculously long for me to wrap up, because I recently drowned in a NejiTen_ (a ship from Naruto) _fanfic and had a sudden bust of inspiration to write pretty much every crappy, sappy or intimate scene between Law and Nami that possibly came in mind ^-^" I know there hasn't been much LawNa action in the last couple of chapters, and I can't say there will be any major moments next chapter either, but since the story is at a bit of a climax, I need to focus on that and wrapping up the general plot line. But once_ that's _done with, I'll get to share the said crap I wrote and you'll get to DROWN WITH ME hohohoho 8))! Thank you for the support!_

 _ **Guest Review Corner (/^O^)/**_

Guest [1] - June 18th: Your enthusiasm is adorable c: Thank youuuu!

Lexi: Well, I guess it depends on your definition of long LOL. I mean, I can pretty much guarantee it won't reach 100k words or anything, since as you said, it _is_ at its climax right now. But it makes me so giddy and happy to hear you don't want it to end ;^; SO THANK YOU AS ALWAYS!


	16. Chapter 16

**I can only say I'm extremely sorry for the delay. Thank you for your support, buu's! ˚‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅ )‧º·˚**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 16**_

Everything is still.

Donquixote Doflamingo lies motionless, nevertheless unquestionably aware of his surroundings across the operation table as Law's gloved hands hover with feigned caution over his broad chest. It has been precisely an hour, if not a minute or two over, since the start of this bogus surgery. The process of faking it is far from being the most difficult part of it all; in fact, it is currently at the bottom of the surgeon's rather lengthy list of concerns. The sea prism stone surrounding him, managing to make a clean escape, finding Cora-san, the godforsaken button ready to blow up the building and its inhabitants, his men's safety, her friends' safety, _her_ safety - those concerns surpass any and all the worries now, almost unbearably, badgering every fiber of his being.

Any hasty move from him may very well sign their deaths - every step must be carefully thought through. He narrows his eyes up to Doflamingo's rigid, unwavering face, his gaze lingering there for a brief moment before dropping down to the button clasped tightly around his enemy's wrist. If he can only manage to get his hands on that switch…

"Your friends have found him…how impressive," Doflamingo's jeering voice seeps into the surgeon's very core so abruptly that he scarcely feels his mortal enemy's rigid hand clasping around his now stiff as rock wrist. Jaw clenching and eyes masked with a thin layer of nonchalance, Law attempts to retain his cool with every ounce of his ability as he allows the words to finally sink in.

"Do you wish for me to go through with this operation or not, Doflamingo?" he restrains the sweltering desire to lose his cool and reveal the agitation now threatening to crack out of him. The blonde bastard chuckles; a low, vile sound, before gradually tipping his head towards the surgeon.

"We are both very aware of the answer to that, no? You were never going to go through with this surgery, Law," he replies mockingly, his clasp around Law's wrist tightening to the point of eliciting a light twitch from the surgeon's jaw, "I have come to the rather unfortunate realization that, though I taught you otherwise as a child, you have become a despicable man willing to go as far as giving your life for a companion."

His leer morphs from one of triumph into one of bitterness and anger, "Which puts me into a state of great conflict... Would I rather be a credulous man willing to put his trust in you once again, or would I rather be a corrupt villain; the man who watches your utter collapse and devastation over your friends' deaths?"

The surgeon stiffens as the laugh he knows all too well breaks through his enemy's clenched teeth and pervades the crammed operation room now seemingly endless times higher in tension and fury. Aware now that their original plan has, without a shadow of a doubt, come to naught, his brain gears shift to work; if he spoke the truth about his executives standing outside, their current situation places the odds in Doflamingo's favor, which means beating him with strength is not an option.

That brings him down to the last option.

...

 _ **Earlier**_

" _I ordinarily respect your decisions, Law-san, but this ti-"_

" _Penguin," the surgeon interrupts, voice collected but stern, and eyes flooded with a credence he, until then, has privately lacked, "I will not allow any obstacle to detriment the plan. Do you understand me? I trust you to be able to carry this out."_

" _Do_ you _realize what you're asking of me!?" Penguin, the typically light-hearted man is now angry, furious, "You can't put your life on the line like this. I won't leave you behind."_

" _I have already provided us with the communication devices," the surgeon continues, ignoring his friend's pleas and revealing two ear pieces, "If something goes wrong in the operation room, you will receive a signal from me. Once you do, know that I will be doing my best to buy as much time to distract Doflamingo for you to get everyone out of he-"_

" _I_ refuse _to do thi-"_

" _I will be counting on you."_

 **...**

And though Penguin never did accept the surgeon's demand with opened arms, Law does not possess the slightest hint of doubt about his friend. Face now settled in a state of composure and left wrist still imprisoned by the solid-fingers of the blonde bastard, Law, his thoughts dancing around to create the perfect distraction and flow of conversation to buy time, carefully runs his free hand along the rim of his hat before tipping his head down in silent attempt to appear in conflict.

"Doflamingo...we made a deal," he confirms at last, sliding his fingers down the side of his head and softly activating the signal to be sent to Penguin, "As long as Corazon comes out alive, you will receive your wish."

His hand slides back down to his side and he lifts his head once more to face the silently leering man with a pair of searing eyes and an unravelled gaze, "I'm your only way to immortality, after all."

* * *

"Monet…" the receptionist's name rolls off of Nami's tongue with something of a vile taste as she, clutching her _Clima-tact_ with her furiously shaking hands, stands betwixt her two equally vigilant comrades a mere twenty feet away from the cell. The air is cold; so cold she can scarcely feel the touch of Sanji's gentle hand as he places it against her shoulder and takes a defensive step in front of her shaking body, his grip tightening slightly with silent demand that she stay there.

"Did you truly believe we would let this little plan of yours slip by us, _Nami_?" Monet's sly pronunciation of the cartographer's real name sends an unforeseen chill down her spine. A dense lump of pure dread lodges itself firmly in the pit of her stomach as a fresh worry blossoms in her mind; Monet's here, which confirms the possibility of Doflamingo knowing.

 _Law…_

She was right; making their way down there _was_ too easy. And as anticipated, their hurdle has finally made its appearance. The chuckling woman, dragging along with her the harsh, bitter coldness of her ability, leisurely catwalks her way across the cooped up tunnel, closer towards them.

"Nami-san," her blonde friend mumbles through his unlit cigarette, careful not to take his eyes off of the approaching woman, "Robin-chan and I will cover for you. Keep moving towards the cell."

Nami shifts her gaze away from Monet's form and up to Robin's face, where she is greeted with a reassuring, firm nod. For a split second, she hesitates. Aware that there is no use in drowning in her now spiraling predictions of what could be happening to her friends at this very moment; Zoro, Usopp, Law, she grits her chattering teeth and without further doubt, grabs hold of the flashlight once more, whirls around and sprints towards the dark cell. The sounds of Robin's limbs blooming, Sanji's worn curses and the never-ending shrill voice of Monet's odious laughs pervades the tunnel, but Nami blocks it all; she trusts her friends, they have her back and are undeniably depending on her.

Her fingers wrap firmly around her _Clima-Tact_ as she finally reaches the cell. As if it were the devil's work himself, the flashlight's glow dies off the instant she attempts to aim it into the dark chamber. Her eyes widen. Alarmed, she gives it several shakes and slams it hard against the bars in hope to revive it. It doesn't budge.

"Shit," she hisses, stopping herself from sinking into panic and instead discarding of the flashlight to grab onto two bars, shove her face in between and desperately call out Corazon's name. She receives no reply; and as she tries once more only to find that her attempts are going nowhere but straight down the drain, she takes hold of her _Clima-Tact_ and mentally goes through each and every function Usopp so diligently placed in her weapon - _even_ the silly props, she rather irritably notes. The tunnel is becoming colder; Monet's abilities are only deepening in strength and compelling Nami's hands to stiffen to the point of being barely able to uncurl from around her pole. This leaves her with only one other option.

Lightning.

She steps back.

" _Cool ball…Heat ball,_ " she murmurs, aiming her weapon to the ceiling and watching the sky-blue bubbles quickly ascending, "And finally... _Thunderball._ "

The translucent orbs float in synchronizing patterns above her head, gradually merging into one another and forming a dark, crackling cloud above them all. With no other option on hand, Nami braces herself, drawing in a full lungful of air before finally yanking her shirt off. The cold slams into her exposed skin like a knife to her heart; she grits her teeth, wills herself to remain composed before getting to work wrapping the piece of fabric around her weapon and securing it tight.

"Ah...so that's what your interesting toy is capable of doing, I see," Monet feigns her awe, humming curiously as she blocks yet another attempt of a strike from Robin's end and continues to watch the crackling cloud, "However, I can't help but wonder how that will be of any use to you."

Forcing herself to ignore the taunting woman, Nami takes a further cautious step back, extends her weapon above her head and wills the lightning to strike the weapon right at its fabric-covered end before slamming her eyes shut and snapping her head away as it finally hits, producing a burning fire and a perfect torch for her to use. She then opens her eyes, the warmth of the fire calming her slightly as she, hurriedly, shuffles her way back to the cell and shoves her make-shift torch through the bars. She squints, scanning the chamber and its contents. Her eyes widen. Her stomach churns. Her hands start to shake once more.

 _There he is._

"Corazon…" she breathes out, her voice cracking as she soaks in the sight of the man her doctor has been aching, _dying_ to find and rescue. Thick handcuffs shackled into the wall are clasped around his terrifyingly bony wrists, his blonde hair is dull, dirty and gruesomely long, covering his face entirely as he sits, his knees digging into the hard ceramic floor, his head hanging by the thinnest of necks, motionless against the wall. He isn't moving. Not a single sign of life. No movement. Not a mere breath.

Nami's heart sinks into her stomach. Her jaw is quivering. She swallows the growing lump in her throat, her hands shaking, though not from the cold.

"No…" she mumbles, tugging the torch further into the cell, biting back a shiver and calling out, "Corazon, my name is Nami. I'm a friend of Law's, and I'm here to get you out."

No reply. Monet laughs.

She tries once more, now lowering her voice so that it only reaches him, "I'm going to need your help for this to work. So please... _please wake up_."

Silence.

Something clicks in her brain. Something important, something _big_ , something so dire that her previously firm grip around the cell bar weakens until her fingers, now trembling against the steel pole, slide down and off. She breathes in a soft gasp. Bit by bit, her vision turns foggy from the tears gradually welling up at the tip of her squinting eyes. She can feel her heart clenching against her stiff as ice chest.

 _How could she have forgotten?_

"I'm _baaaaaack_!" the sound of Luffy's vociferous voice booms from across the tunnel, his steps just as loud, if not louder, and thundering from behind him as he finally makes his appearance at the tunnel's entrance. Monet, whose face up until then had been smeared with a smug, conceited smirk, is now unmistakably startled as their rubber friend hurls himself, howling at the top of his lungs, towards her.

"Who...?" is all she manages before he lands an abrupt strike to her cheek, sending her slamming head-first into the wall and shaking the place from block to block. Flying debris strikes into the ceiling and soars across the tunnel in all directions, compelling Nami to shield her face and brace herself for any oncoming impacts. The floating dust finally settles as Luffy lands back on his feet, his hand firmly clutching his straw-hat atop his head and a grin plastered in the center of his shining face. Nami's lower lip begins to quiver with both sadness and relief - all of this means that Sugar was taken down.

"Luffy…" she begins softly, "I'm-"

"Ohhhh, Nami," he interrupts, sending her a reassuring smile but keeping his focus on the now groaning figure of the former receptionist, "You're not wearing much, you doofus, and it's really cold!"

"What?..." exclaims a now frantic Sanji as he whirls around on his heels, endures a brief moment of mental shock upon soaking in her binded chest, followed by a quick fit of attempting to keep his bleeding nose intact, before finally yanking his dusty blazer off and sprinting towards her. Despite their rather dire situation, Nami manages to crack a small chuckle in thank-you as he, whilst spouting numerous apologizes for not noticing sooner, snugly wraps her around with his discarded jacket.

"I'm fine, I promise," she insists impatiently when he continues wailing in rather dramatized agony. Finally narrowing her eyes away from Sanji and towards the battered wall, Nami notes the receptionist slowly returning back to her feet and recovering from Luffy's abrupt strike. With no more time to waste, she grabs hold of Sanji's arm and gestures for Robin to inch closer towards them, torch still in hand.

"I found Corazon. I tried calling out to him and coaxing him up, but he won't budge," she explains hurriedly, now turning her focus onto her female companion, "I was thinking-"

Robin smiles, "Leave it to me."

She crosses her arms, closes her eyes and sprouts a pair of limbs by Corazon's body; to which Nami responds by sticking the torch through the bars in hope of catching him respond, all whilst calling out his name.

"He's alive," the archaeologist reassures upon noting his unsteady breathing, proceeding to shake him gently. Whilst she does that, Nami studies the lock that her blonde friend only moments before attempted to kick broken without success. Her heart sinks upon registering the complexity of it all; despite having faith in her ability to decipher it, she doubts there will be enough time. A lump of dread quickly makes its way up Nami's throat as a mass of thundering steps comes echoing down the tunnel. She exchanges a worried glance with her two friends.

 _More of Doflamingo's executives?_

After momentarily bracing herself, she releases a long breath of air as Usopp's panicked form appears at the entrance, followed closely by a lightly blood-drenched Zoro - from what she believes was his fight against Diamante- and a panting Penguin. As Robin proceeds with her attempts to wake Corazon, Nami whirls around and stares in urgent questioning at Penguin. He shouldn't be here; he should be near Law. Why is he here?

"Penguin, wha-" she begins.

"Everyone needs to get out of here," he snaps, his ordinarily gentle demeanor wiped off as his concern-stricken eyes soak in their surroundings. Upon reaching the sight of Corazon, he dodges one of the oncoming strikes from Monet and Luffy, hurriedly making his way around the fighting duo and towards Nami with Usopp and Zoro following closely behind.

"What are you doing here!?" Nami demands, flustered at his attitude. His being here means Law is on his own with Doflamingo.

"What's the situation here?" he urgently inquires to no one in particular, ignoring her.

"There's a loc-" Sanji begins his explanation before being abruptly cut off once more.

"No _time_ for that," Penguin stresses, gesturing for Zoro to step forth with his swords, to which the green-haired man responds by grunting for all of them to move away, taking his stance and preparing to slice the bars in half.

Giving up the hope of receiving any valid responses from the abnormally frenzied Penguin, Nami turns to the only other person available to answer - Usopp. With her shirt now a pile of ashes, she reassembles her _Clima-Tact_ and turns to its original owner with a firm grit of her teeth.

" _What_ is going on?"

Usopp, now shivering from the building cold, replies between his chattering teeth, "Penguin-san barely explained to us, Nami. But all I know is that Kid, Chopper and Shachi are working on getting the few patients there are in the hospital out, and all we need to do is get Corazon and leave."

The information sinks in, but the lump in her throat remains. She almost fears asking the next question, "And Law? What about Law, Usopp!?

At this, he stutters, "I-I don't know…"

"What do you mean, you _don't know_?" she retaliates sharply, but soon catches herself as the now severed cell-bars slam into the walls, compelling her to pull Usopp down with her to dodge any flying wreckage.

"Nami, his handcuffs," Zoro ushers as he steps away from the now opened space to let her in. She nods, shuffling off of her feet and scurrying into the cell with a pair of bent bobby pins in one hand and her weapon in the other. She gets to work as the rest of her friends defend the prison area from the now abrupt strikes from Monet.

"That man is as good as dead," the green-haired woman leers, her voice steady but times less confident. Nami continues without a mere second-thought of the receptionist's words.

"Nami, get a move on," the swordsman pressures as he blocks yet another oncoming impact, now practically joined with Luffy against the woman.

"Zip it, Zoro," she snaps, pushing the bobby-pins together one last time before hearing the divine sound of a thick clunk as the handcuffs fall off and drop to the ground. Without as much as a moment to embrace her relief, Nami allows Corazon's thin body to drop into her arms. The lightness of his figure both saddens and surprises her, so much that she feels able to carry him with ease - despite the difference in size and length. Nevertheless, her blonde friend swiftly comes to her assistance by gently taking hold of Corazon's body before positioning him behind his back and hurriedly making his way out the cell and towards the tunnel.

"Luffy, Zoro, right after us!" Sanji commands as everyone runs after him and into the tunnel, but not before receiving an affirmed _Ah!_ from their two fighting comrades. Nami, gripping her weapon with one hand and dashing along her friends, is quick to return her attention to Penguin.

"Did something happen? Why are the patients being moved out of the hospital?" she asks, now feeling sick to her stomach. He doesn't reply. Frustrated, she presses, "Penguin!"

"If we don't get Corazon out of here on time, then all of our efforts would have gone in vain," he coldly replies as a loud crash comes echoing from behind them, followed by the sound of sprinting.

Nami's heart endures a momentary pause. Her jaw ticks. She is doing everything in her power not to stop herself from running, "Law is alone...with Doflamingo."

"He will be fine."

"It's _Doflamingo_ , he needs help!"

"He will be _fine_ ," his voice is stone-hard as they reach the end of the tunnel and begin climbing up. A mixture of confusion, worry and fear is now settled in the pit of her stomach as Usopp assists in pulling her up and back onto the first floor of the hospital. She is scarcely aware of her quiet surroundings as they dart out of the room, into the corridors and through the story with unimaginable speed. Everything around her is silent; all patients have been evacuated, all sounds have been shut off aside from the echoing of their dashing footsteps against the floor. They are all within seconds of being free; of leaving this place, of saving Corazon. But it would all mean nothing if the surgeon doesn't make it. It would all mean _nothing_. Her heart rails against her swelling chest in panic as she, now only a countable feet away from the entrance, skids to a stop, whirls on her heels and runs back.

"N-Nami!" Usopp shouts, alarmed, "What are you doing!?"

She ignores her friends' shouts and presses forward. She is not physically strong. She is easily petrified. But that doesn't make it right to leave anyone behind. Not him. Not Law. Her eyes misty from the cold air rushing against her, Nami makes an abrupt turn into a hallway before bumping, nose first, into the chest of a now groaning Zoro, with Luffy trailing behind. She stumbles back.

With a wince, Zoro shifts his gaze down to her and firmly inquires, upon noting her situation, "Where the hell are you going?"

"To my doctor," she informs him coolly, sliding around his figure only to be gripped by her arm once more and held back. Beyond flustered and shaking her arm in attempt to break him off, she demands, "Let go."

"What are you gonna do, huh? Zap that motherfucker dead?" he yells, angry as she continues to try and break away from his grip. He tightens his grasp, "Nami, cut the crap! That god-damn woman's gonna catch up."

"Nami, Torao can do it," the gentleness and serenity of Luffy's voice only further pushes her scrambled emotions out into the open.

Her previously misty eyes gradually turn more watery; more bloodshot as she fails to escape from his hold, "I don't care that I'm not strong enough, I can't leave him behind. Get your hand the _hell_ off of me!"

"Damn halfwit..." Zoro mutters, wrapping his arm around her hips and, ignoring the yelp she so ungracefully lets out, lugs her mercilessly atop his shoulder and runs after their rubber friend. Screaming for him to let her down, she lands punch after punch against his back, kick after kick into his chest in dire hope that he would release her - he doesn't understand.

 _She can't leave him._

Before she knows it, however, all three of them are out in the open, not stopping to look back as they continue to dash towards the car waiting for them three streets away, with Chopper, Shachi and Kid waving them over.

"Zoro, we can't...we can't," her anger has now turned into desperation as they drift further and further away from the hospital. And just as she prepares to wriggle out of his embrace for the last time, to try once more, the hospital lights up with blinding flashes and flames; the sound of the abrupt explosion so loud, so ear-splitting that she momentarily goes deaf.

Her eyes drown in tears. Her heart stops.

" _N-No…_ "


	17. Chapter 17

_**Chapter 17**_

" _N-No…_ "

The blazing flames rise in height right before her dilated eyes, crackling and spreading their scorching heat throughout the debris-blanketed streets. For a moment, not a soul speaks; not a mere peep is heard above the dwindling sounds of the fire as it disperses further down the melting roads. The distant sound of sirens and wailing patients finally reaches Nami's ears, but all she finds herself capable of is to gape blankly at the dancing flames as they soar higher into the ash stricken sky. Cascades of salty tears trickle down her flushed cheeks and scar her dirt-stained face with permanent streaks. Her chest hurts. It _physically hurts_.

"Let me down," her voice is low; steady despite the crack that oh-so-miserably thrusts its way in the heart of her words.

"Nam-" Zoro, unruffled, begins but is briskly interrupted.

"Believe me when I say I will never find it in myself to forgive you if you don't let me down _right now_ ," she murmurs, her tone dripping with hurt and sheer anger.

For a long, agonizingly heavy moment, he remains silent. The fury building inside her threatens to crack its way out. No sooner than later, however, does Luffy, placing his hand tenderly on his stiff comrade's shoulder, intervene with a soft, "Stop it, Zoro."

"Her mind is in a blasted mess, she's gonna burn herself alive," the firm man replies with fiercely gritted teeth.

"We'll be right here if anything goes wrong," is the boy's simple, gentle response.

Another brief moment passes. A low, thwarted _tch_ escapes the bloodied swordsman.

He puts her down.

The very instant her feet come in contact with the trembling ground, Nami grabs hold of her _Clima Tact_ , mustering her quivering limbs and aching heart long enough to create a veil of rain clouds to cover the entirety of the fire.

 _How could she have let this happen?_

The iron pole slips from between her fingers, falling with a heavy thud to the ground as she scampers hurriedly down the scolding hot street; straight towards the smoldering building. Her eyes drown in thick tears and blur her already hazy vision as she staggers dazedly against the rubble, not bothering in the slightest to wait until the fire dies down.

 _Stop crying._

She can't see anything; she can't make anything out through the water now impetuously shrouding her eyelashes.

"Law!" her voice is hoarse, weak and desperate.

 _Where is he?_

Her teeth clamp over her lower lip with a sharp wince as ragged debris thrusts its way into her ankles; fresh blood is dripping down her arms as she recklessly hurls rock after rock in aching hope of finding him; _any_ sign of him. Her mind scarcely registers the sight of her friends sprinting towards her to help search; and if it weren't for the gruff hand of a cursing Eustass Kid, she would have mindlessly walked straight into the fire. Weakly, she attempts to wriggle her way out of his firm grasp. Her eyes are bloodshot; her face is stained.

"God damn piece'a'shit, you wanna get yourself _killed_!?" he rawrs; but she doesn't hear him. Her throat is wedged by a heavy cloud of overpowering dread, "Oi, pay attention! This is gonna get you nowhere, you hear?"

Somehow, she manages to free herself from him. The thick air surrounding them holds its breath; her own breath endures a sharp halt as her eyes soak in the sight of a boarder; a thin layer; a _room_ shrinking into nothingness a mere half a mile away from where she stands. Her heart begins thundering primitively against her heaving chest as her feet sore her across the building's shattered pieces.

 _He's alive. He's alive._

Gasping, Nami loses her balance and tumbles into the ragged ground, clasping her eyes shut in anticipation of the harsh fall. She feels something soft against her foot as she attempts to push herself up once more - briefly, her eyes glance down to locate the unusually tender surface. A small whimper then escapes her throat as her dilated irises take in the sight of thick green locks peeking out like a clump of helpless roots from beneath a massive boulder. _Monet._

Instantly, she feels sick to her stomach.

"What are you doing? Hurry your ass up and find him!" the sound of a much aggravated Kid half a mile away from her plunges its path into her ears and compels her to muster up her courage once more, push herself off of the rubble and persevere.

"Law?" she musters between her choked sobs, eyes darting from pile to pile of battered debris, "Answer me!"

The smallest, softest, most heavenly sound resembling a shriveled grunt reaches her now perked ears; she whirls around, her body falling limp with relief at the sight of a shabby hat peeking out of a heavy cloud of the slowly settling dust. Quivering, she teeters her way, almost afraid of what awaits her, towards whom she hopes is her doctor. She had been outwardly panicked up until this point; now she finds herself terrified of what she might find.

 _Missing arm._

 _Missing legs._

 _He could be on the verge of death._

The dust clears. She reaches him. Her feet fail on her, and she drops to her knees at his side, instantly sticking her ear to his exposed, bloody chest now drenched with rain water.

 _Ba-dump_

 _Ba-dump_

Eyes flooding with fresh, bulky tears, her throat finally cracks out with the sobs she was, until then, suppressing with her all might. They pervade the grounds, coming out in heavy, ear-splitting bits.

 _He's alive._

Relief cannot even begin to describe the feeling now engulfing her chest.

Her entire body is trembling as she slides her ice-cold fingers up his jaw, cupping his heavily scratched-up face to study him more thoroughly. The salty tears relentlessly surging down her cheeks drip one by one onto his own face, before slowly tracing down his face and trickling into the crook of his neck. His breathing is heavy, slow, but steady. Her sight is hazy from the tears still drenching her vision. Nami finds herself feeling helpless. Unable to prevent the tears and erratic sobs from pouring out of her, she tugs the surgeon closer in a desperate, futile effort to make her presence felt. Abruptly, her breath hitches as she feels a familiarly tattooed hand drawing up and gingerly closing in on her own trembling fingers. Her once choked sobs morph into erratic hiccups. She shoots her eyes up to his slowly coming face.

" _Mmm_...Nami-ya, my ribs-" he attempts tiredly, momentarily confusing her. Upon realizing her knee ungracefully digging into his injured side, she yelps and stumbles backwards. Though weakly, he squeezes her hand to stop her from retreating entirely, the smallest hint of a smirk twitching at the sides of his mouth, "...Dummy."

While in normal circumstances she would have given him a rather harsh retaliation, her heart finds itself settled in such overwhelming solace that she simply laughs, allowing the last of her tears to soak into the sides of her drenched sleeves before she kneels down and plants a long kiss to his forehead.

"How did you do it?," she murmurs between her laughs, " _How did you…"_ "

"Nami-ya…" his voice is low, dripping with a sad mixture of dread and anticipation. His eyes remain closed as he softly utters, "Is Cora-san…were you able-"

"We saved him," she breathes out, her fingers tenderly fondling the only uninjured part of his face; his left earlobe as she kneels down and whispers, " _He's alive_."

* * *

 _ **One Month Later**_

The rich scent of strong coffee drifts through the crack in the bathroom door and up the hurried red-head's nostrils, successfully calming her frayed nerves as she finishes touching up the last of her makeup. Scurrying out whilst murmuring a rather ungraceful line of colorful words, she then drops to the floor and slips on her favorite spring sandals - she had originally been planning to wear her heels today, but a certain alarm didn't go off, thus changing most of her plans for that morning. Quick to shove the last of her notes in her messenger bag, Nami pours the coffee into her only thermos, slips her sunglasses on and steps out the door.

College life, which she has only been living through less than a full week, has been wonderful. Hectic -perhaps- but wonderful. A one bedroom apartment in the heart of a busy city and a couple of friends nearby is what she has, and is all she needs.

Her hometown is back on its feet. She herself is back on her feet. Things have been good.

 _Ugh. So good._

Yet, a certain factor reminds unresolved. Or, to put it in a more personal way, a certain person has been missing in her current life.

Trafalgar Law.

The day they found Corazon - the day they finally brought him back was also the last day she would see her doctor. He had taken Corazon and left; somewhere far, somewhere not a soul connected to the Donquixote family could possibly reside. Nami understood. Corazon needed help. He needed it badly, and he needed it without a shred of a doubt to come from her doctor and her doctor alone. Nami _understood that_. But she would never understand why he would cut her off from any news - any reassurance that Corazon is alive and well, that _he_ is alive and well. Resentment of his sudden disappearance had taken control of her heart for a while; and though she has moved on enough to return to her own life, to start focusing on herself again, the hurt she feels remains lingering.

The spark of anger was reignited when she received a call from Shachi the evening before, saying that her doctor had returned without notice. Her initial instinct was to inquire about his well-being - but somehow she managed to hold back. Her tone remained neutral when Shachi asked if she and her friends were available to attend he and Penguin's new apartment celebration party. At the outset, she had politely declined; uncertain of whether she felt prepared to face the surgeon again, but Shachi was quick to coax her, and even managed to convince her to help with preparing the food.

Though Nami regards herself as a tough-minded person, Shachi had always had that effect on her.

And so came the day.

Cautious not to make any sound as she twists their apartment doorknob open and steps in with one too many grocery bags hanging from her now imprinted wrists -they had asked for one too many 6-packs of beer - Nami takes the quietest of tiptoe steps, using her elbow to grab onto the handle once more and click the door shut. She releases a strained puff of air before turning around- and across the apartment, with his ever familiar tamed facial hair, grave dark eyes and jet-black overgrown locks, stands the surgeon at the doorway of his bedroom, his hands stopped at a momentary pause from buckling his belt.

Her eyes widen. Her heart instantly gets to work thundering against her now softly heaving chest. Silence. The air around them turns excruciatingly dense - and as they stand there, neither of them uttering a word, silently regarding one another with drawn, blank masks, the cartographer begins to doubt if time ever passed at all.

He looks different.

The aura his body is giving off is not the same - not in the least-bit careworn, drained or tinted with the never-wavering sense of concern. His shoulders, though a tad tense, no longer carry that unseeable yet once painfully real and inescapable weight. The irises of his eyes are as dark and intense as she remembers them, but they hold an unmistakable shine not once has she ever had the pleasure of witnessing. He looks different - but in every way _free_.

Her eyes sting with an unpleasantly familiar sensation, and the instant it hits her, she jerks her head away from his line of vision and tightens her grip on the heavy grocery bags now weighing her down.

"...What are you standing there for, doc? Get your be-hind over here and help me with these bags."

Her ice-breaking statement comes off weaker than she intended it to; nevertheless, after a brief moment of taking in her request, the surgeon - disregarding his now hanging, unbuckled belt - maneuvers softly around the living room furniture, closer towards her. Finding it uncharacteristically difficult to look him in the eye, Nami settles on fixing her gaze on the suitcase lying a mere ten feet away from where she stands. She feels a relieved tug at her heart - that he is back. That he is here, now. _He's here_. Her foggy thoughts take an abrupt turn and her pulse kicks up when she feels his hand brushing lightly against her knuckles as he slips his fingers through the bag handles and tenderly frees her of the weight. The moment he takes a long step back, breaking their warm, fleeting contact, she instantly finds herself craving it back. For a brief, desperate moment, her body almost relents. He regards her tense face with the smallest of smiles - one can barely call it so - and says, "demanding as always, Nami-ya."

Before her mind grasps the chance to respond to his words, to perhaps inquire about Corazon, about _him_ , the kitchen door swings open and out steps his three most cherished friends - who have also managed to mark their place quite permanently in her heart. Despite the interruption and her mild disappointment, she finds herself smiling from ear to ear at Shachi's buoyant, unrelenting grin, Penguin's struggle with attempting to carry a grouchy Bepo and, though she hates to admit it, even Kid's rather haunting, thunderous laughter.

"Nami-chan!" comes the synchronized greeting of both Shachi and Penguin upon seeing her stand silently, though happily, by the front door. Somehow, her smile manages to dilate.

"It's been a while," she responds, looking away only to slip her coat off, hang it up by the door before making her way towards the trio and adding, "the apartment looks great. Good job, all of you!"

Penguin releases the restlessly wailing cat, regards her with a pair of rosy pink cheeks and shyly replies, saying, "Yeah, well...we wouldn't have been able to do it without Usopp-san. He walked us through every step and-"

"Oi, oi," grunts Kid, interrupting their friendly chatter with a cursory swing of his beer bottle, "enough of your yapping; the grub'll get cold and your dumbass group of friends have been waiting for your sorry-bust to show up, Nami."

Upon regarding Penguin with an apologetic smile, "accidentally" slamming one of her heeled sandals into Kid's bulky foot and gladly embracing the train of colorful curses that follows, she maneuvers around the men and finds her way through the hearteningly small, off-white themed kitchen, towards the balcony's thick glass door and out onto the vivid green back-yard. The rest of the men trail behind. Grilling food, simmering sauces and the ever-familiar aroma of Sanji's cooking fills her nostrils with a homey, welcoming embrace. Her eyes soak in the blue and white checkered picnic spread lying across the rather shaggy grass, and brightens at spotting her comrades, scattered miscellaneously around the broad piece of cloth, chattering and arguing as noisily as ever. She meets Robin's gaze, regards her with a squinty smile and tiptoes happily to join her.

"Nami-swan!~" comes the chirping voice of a giddy Sanji from where he stands, wearing his signature _Kiss The Cook_ apron with all his pride and glory by the grill. He sends her a rather perky wink, "Please dig in, my sunshine, and the rest of the food will be ready very soo-Luffy you rubber _fucking_ moron, get your filthy hands off of the ladies' desserts!"

Nami half-heartedly rolls her eyes, more than a tad accustomed to her friends' various and sundry shenanigans. Her female friend leans in.

"I was surprised to hear you were coming," she whispers proudly as the last of their friends settle around the perfect food range to join them, "Torao-kun is quite lucky, no?"

The cartographer's face warms ever-so-slightly, enough for only her to notice, fortunately, but a swift wave of her hand and a sarcastic chuckle is enough to disregard her friend's pleasant, though rather suspiciously sudden praising. She hadn't exactly talked to Robin about the hurt this entire ordeal has caused her. But before she knows it, the banquet has begun; filled-to-the-brim mugs of sake are clashing, belches are roaring, laughs are pervading the neighborhood and hands are desperately attempting to shield their precious portion of food from Luffy's abrupt thefts. Her eyes dart back and forth between two separate conversations; one with a rather drunk Kid, which she eventually gives up on, and one with a pleasantly interested Shachi. She gives her drink a light shake as she leans closer, attempting to hear him over the loud ruckus of their - well, _her_ friends.

"I'm sure you were wondering, Nami-chan…" he begins, his voice gentle and serene, "according to Law-san, Corazon is in much better shape." Nami perks. "He is nowhere near as strong and built as he used to be, but his mentality is currently stable, which was Law-san's main concern."

 _It all makes sense. The relief radiating off of him, the happiness she saw dancing in his eyes. Everything._

Her line of vision leisurely leaves Shachi and shifts towards the surgeon sitting directly across from her. She wants to speak with him, ask about him, how he has been doing the past month, why he never bothered calling; not _once_. She watches him intently, carefully as he loosens the top two buttons of his shirt, revealing a perfect patch of soft tanned skin. A sharp tug envelopes the entirety of her chest as she peels her eyes away from his neck and up to his face - where his eyes meet hers and he holds her gaze for a long moment. She returns it just as daringly. He eventually breaks their steady eye-contact and shifts his intent stare down to her lips. Her stomach churns. It proceeds to go further down, boldly, openly soaking in every part of her. His thorough eyeing of her body makes her feel overwhelmed; so much to the point that she excuses herself and silently heads inside.

As she steps out of the back-yard and further into the kitchen, she finds herself appreciating the silence; aside from the irking sound of her fiercely hammering heart. With a soft, weary sigh, she sets her wine cup down by the sink, leans her elbows against the counter and allows her heavy eyelids to sink and drag along with them the mess that is her current mind and thoughts. Her body seems unable, or perhaps unwilling to relax. The mere act of looking at him exhausts her nerves; she both loathes and loves the fact that he is now here.

Quietly, she shifts her body away from the counter and towards the living room, where she left her keys. The inside of the house seems awfully quiet, with nothing but the faint sounds of her friends' laughter coming from the crack of the kitchen door. Upon reaching the couch and locating her keys, Nami notes her doctor's former lab-coat hanging rather clumsily for his taste across the couch's armrest. Her eyes soften. Not a mere moment later does she find herself drawn onto the couch, where her fingers begin to trace along the jacket's rim before gently slipping it off the couch and bringing it up to her face. She draws in a small breath, then lets it out through her nose with a soft chuckle.

Itsy bit of cologne. Coffee. _Him._

As she sets it down once more, her ears catch the sound of the kitchen door coming to a gentle click-shut as someone steps in. Her heart is scarcely able to register the figure of her doctor before he leisurely makes his way towards the couch and seats himself next to her. Suddenly she no longer feels reminiscent; but angry. Her small hands curl into fists against her lap.

"Why didn't you call?" her soft, collected voice shatters the lingering silence.

But not for long, however, as he takes his time replying to her inquiry. He finally responds with just as much of a collected tone.

"Forgive me for concerning you, Nami-ya."

That polite-talk, that distant response - it _angers_ her. Her eyes remain fixed onto his collected face, "that didn't answer my question."

"Perhaps," he replies, a bit strained himself, "I don't have an answer to that question that would satisfy you."

Her eyes begin to sting. _What is that supposed to mean?_

"You left without a word."

He remains silent. She presses on.

"For an entire month, I didn't hear from you," she whispers, shaking, hurt, "Law, I didn't even know if you were _alive_!"

His neutral face gradually turns more concerned; but remains intact as she proceeds, forcing herself to stay as calm as she possibly can.

"I'm sorry if I'm coming off as selfish. I understand that Corazon needed you...I understand that you had to get away, but a call, Law," her voice is low now, "a call reassuring me wouldn't have killed you."

She was so engrossed in her own words that she didn't notice that the surgeon had closed the distance between them - that he is now seated right next to her, his eyes strong but tender as they stare into her own tear drenched ones. His tattooed fingers travel up her cheek and wipe away the stray tear that had trickled down her face before gently guiding her head towards his. Her heart clenches as their foreheads connect; her lips begin to quiver as he pulls her trembling body close to his and murmurs, his voice blanketed with an unrelenting sense of guilt, "I am so sorry."

* * *

 _A/N I suck :) I know._


	18. Chapter 18

**_A/N:_ _(´ー`)σ ily. I'm incredibly sorry._**

 ** _Here we go._**

* * *

 ** _Chapter 18_**

 _Utter exhaustion._

That is all Nami seems to be feeling early morning of next day, heart throbbing from the heaviness of her lengthy talk with the man she only months ago referred to as her boss. She has always been a talker - a person whose words came with the utmost ease whilst expressing herself, yet it all feels times harder when it comes to him. In fact, they had not quite properly ended their conversation the previous evening; their friends had oh-so-gracefully launched themselves back into the living room for a late-night game of drinking which, if anything at all, Nami felt rather up to given her situation. The hurt that slowly built itself around her heart the past few months is not entirely gone. Healing, perhaps yes, but not quite cured - which happens to be making it that much more difficult for her to utter a single word as she sits, buckled, next to her doctor as he drives them across the eerily bare country roads towards where he had been staying with Corazon.

She is meeting him. Finally. And for some reason, her stomach is unable to halt its fairly strong flippity-flops each time she recalls that very fact.

"Nami-ya," Law's gentle enunciation of her name quickly yanks her back to reality.

Smiling - a tad forced, she unscrews the top of her coffee thermos and takes a small sip before looking over to him and responding with a soft, "hm?"

Without a moment to register it, the car makes an abrupt stop next to a small, humble house placed among many others of similar size and shape - its compact nature and the baby trees surrounding it gives it a homey aura, which instantly helps ease the cartographer's rather frayed nerves.

"We've arrived," he finally voices, gently slipping the keys out of the ignition and opening the door of his car, to which she responds with the same. The cool air feels magnificent against her perspired skin as they make their way, still silent, through the creaky gate and into the house she, despite her lingering hurt, finds herself relieved to discover had been his home for the last few months of his absence. The moment she steps into the humble home, she is greeted with the sight of endless furniture items spread across the living room - paintings sprinkling the walls and rugs upon rugs rolled out before her. A small door leads into a fully-furnished kitchen, with a door beyond it opening onto a strikingly green, freshly mowed backyard.

Her doctor seems to register the baffled look on her face and, as he places the keys back into his pocket, all he offers in explanation is a simple, "You will soon understand" before leading her further into the small, and rather _lived-in_ home. A minor part of her feels that she is intruding on a home that neither belongs to her nor him; and that very suspicion is instantly confirmed when a tall, burly figure she now assumes is the true owner appears from a room at the very back of the house. Her stomach churns with deep anxiety once more as the hefty man's humorously long braided goatee swings back and forth whilst he gives Law a stern smile and makes his way towards the two.

"I didn't expect you back so soon, Trafalgar," is his greeting, his steps halting a few feet away from the calm figure of her doctor. His eyes soon shift away from Law's face to drop down to Nami's eyes - and though his build may initially be somewhat alarming, his eyes give off a distinct kindness.

She then smiles and offers him her hand to shake, "I apologize for the intrusion. I'm Nami."

It takes him a moment to register her formality, but soon he mirrors her smile and accepts her gesture. His voice is calm, welcoming, "I'm Sengoku, a friend of Law and Rosinante."

"Corazon," Law offers in silent explanation upon soaking in her slightly puzzled expression in response to the name _Rosinante_. He and Sengoku exchange a silent look before the thickset man grabs a large coat draped rather messily across a couch's armrest and exiting the house. Before giving her the chance to question, Law places his hand on the small of her back and guides her into the room Sengoku only moments before exited.

Involuntarily, she draws in a sharp breath as she finally enters the room and sees the face of the man Law loves so unconditionally - the face of the man her doctor is so selflessly willing to give his life for, the face of the man that has endlessly reminded her of her own mother; her own guardian whom she now feels the sharp sting of missing more than ever before.

His previously long, unattended blonde hair is now neatly trimmed into a short, tidy cut. His body is as fragile as the day is clear - but nothing like the lifeless form that had dropped so helplessly into her arms only months before. His face is radiating with a full sense of life that only triples in brilliance when his gentle eyes squint and his lips curl into a wide, unrelenting smile.

"Oh how I've longed to meet you, sweet Nami!" he utters with such genuine joy that all she finds herself capable of replying with is a face of streaming tears as her feet subconsciously make their way to the side of the bed he now lies on before accepting a shockingly tight embrace from such a weak body. Like a harsh wave crashing down a frail dam, Nami's pain pours out- why seeing this man has compelled her emotions to teeter, her long yearning to feel Bellemere's hug just a single more time in her life to erupt in such a manner, and why he welcomed her in with such a loving, unquestioning fashion, the cartographer will never know.

All she knows is that it feels like hours on end that she has sobbed into this man's shoulder - hours upon hours on end since he wrapped his arms around her and began stroking her back in a way she has not been in years.

* * *

Waking up, her eyes feel heavy; her head is throbbing and mind perplexed - but heart feeling thoroughly tranquil. The pillow beneath her head is particularly soft, Nami silently notes as she shifts her weight from her left side to her back, the quilt draped across her body sliding off and slowly trickling down to a clump on the hardwood floor. Upon remembering the place she is currently in and the train of events that she is now so embarrassingly aware of once more, Nami draws her knees to her chest and buries her now uncomfortably hot face into them. In short - she cried herself to sleep in the arms of her doctor's father figure.

The shame swells up in her chest once more and escapes her mouth in a small, pitiful whine - just in time for the surgeon to hear it as he cracks open the door of the bedroom she is now residing in and stepping in with a mildly amused glint in his eyes.

And surprisingly, she scarcely gives it any heed. She has already planted in her head a preparation of receiving his irritatingly witty comments about what has happened.

Also surprisingly, however, he merely enters with a mug of tea, places it on her bedside table and offers nothing but a simple, "You haven't eaten or drunk anything since we arrived here this morning. This should do for the time being."

Nodding, she gratefully accepts the drink and takes slow, needy sips. The warm liquid trickles down her throat and immediately helps the numerous clouds in her head to clear. With a glance towards the small bedroom's window, she realizes it is nighttime; how late it is or how long she has been asleep, she has not a clue; but the instant she registers how late it _could_ be, her previously droopy eyes snap open and she yelps, "Should we head back?"

Law, leaning against the now closed door and staring back at her rather intently, releases a soft chuckle and counters, "It is two in the morning, Nami-ya, we are better off staying the rest of the night."

Her face calms, and her fingers curl against her folded legs in a rare moment of self-consciousness, "Ah...I'm sorry for the inconvenience."

Law's chest rises and falls with deep, hungry breaths. He shakes his head, "No trouble at all."

A painful silence then fills the space between them; and all she finds herself concentrated on is her slowly rising heartbeats, her mess of a hairdo and the sudden awareness of her shorts and the fairly revealing tank she earlier that day decided was a suitable outfit to wear given the heated weather of the month. Her fingers slide down her thigh and reach for a pillow they could squeeze as her doctor finally breaks the silence with a low, scarcely heard, "He quite likes you."

Blinking, Nami takes a moment to soak in his words before breaking into a slightly bashful smile, "You're very lucky to have him, Law."

Another brief silence ensues - this time not as heavy, as well as not as long. Not shy to be the one to break the said quietness once more, her doctor finally attempts to ask the question she has, for the longest time, dreaded he would.

"Nami-ya," he begins, his voice calm but resolute - but Nami does not give him the chance to finish.

"I never told you why I posed as a boy, did I?" she breathes out, watching his previously resolved face fall into a more calm expression. Softly, she bites the insides of her cheeks before, at last, drawing in a deep breath and telling him everything.

Through it all, the composure in his eyes never wavers, and he only offers the slightest of nods every once in awhile to assure her of his mindful presence to her words. Words that would ordinarily have caused her to choke up or bring tears to her eyes this time do not trigger her - almost as if her break out with Corazon has emptied her of that burden. Uttering Arlong's name, though painful, does not bring her down as it used to.

Not anymore.

The nostalgia, however, lingers in her heart throughout the one-sided conversation; memories of her time in her hometown, her sister, Gen-san, and most painfully, her mother. Her eyes soften with a smile as she speaks of Bellemere's relentless tough love, how she never deprived her daughters of their freedom and pursuing their dreams, but never hesitated to pull an ear or two if she caught Nami attempting to steal another book of some sort from their local bookstore. She laughs at the memory, her fingers sliding up her face to push her bangs away from her squinting has never felt this safe speaking of it.

And it is then that it hits her why that is.

She trusts him. With everything.

She trusts him with her background, with her friends, with her pain. She trusts him with herself. Her heart. Her body. Every part of her. Everything suddenly comes into the clear in her head.

She wants him.

She wants his cold demeanor, his irritability, his stubbornness, his exasperating silence. She wants his soft chuckles, his constant teasing. She wants his background, his friends, his pain. She wants his heart, his body, his trust.

 _Every part of him._

Her pulse instantly kicks up as her feet slip off of the bed and carry her across the room, closer towards him as she subtly wets her upper lip, then her lower. She only stops a mere foot away from his body before looking up at the dark eyes boring into her own and saying, her eyes hazy from the soft layer of tears slowly forming from her realization and whispering, "I'm yours if you'll have me."

She watches as his previously uncertain eyes dilate ever-so-slightly, watches as he studies her face and soaks in the words she only seconds ago dropped on him. He draws in a long breath. Closing the distance between them and leaning forward, he brings her forehead to his and softly murmurs his response, "And I'm yours, Nami-ya."

The cartographer's eyes flutter shut as she senses his hand shifting from his side and edging up her shirt to explore the small of her back with tender, curious strokes. The tears fall. His every touch is gentle, fleeting, yet still demanding; like a slowly growing flame. His body inches closer and his face descends gradually towards the crook of her neck, where his soft breath grazes her skin; somehow succeeding in placing her body into a perfect state of indescribable bliss. His free hand ghosts away from her back and detours towards the side of her torso.

She trembles. He steps closer, slowly pinning her against the door as he uses his index finger to trace stray patterns across her pale skin.

"You're shaking..." he whispers, his hand softly massaging her back as he tips his head, his lips lightly grazing her own.

Her knees begin to shake; her grip on his belt loops tighten. Excitement, fear, desire - everything she feels is _right_.

"Are you-"

"I'm okay," she breathes out, "Don't stop."

Tenderly, he sweeps his thumb across her cheek to wipe the tears off before leisurely allowing the tip of his tongue to mark its designs along the side of her jaw. A rush of warmth erupts within every part of her as his soft breath brushes against her skin just before he comes in and captures her lower lip between his. He closes the remaining gap between them by swiftly sliding his free arm beneath her thighs, hoisting her up so that her face is leveled with his and pressing her up against the door with a fierce, desperate, unrelenting kiss.

The instant his lips make contact with her own, she gets flooded with the overwhelming sensation of how much she has missed him. It strikes her hard. She has never realized just how strong this unbelievably wild instinct of hers was; that it is strong enough to overshadow her mindset, her logic, until this very instant as she wraps her legs around his waist and roughly clutches onto his broad neck, not hesitating to drown into him and return his kiss just as fervently. Butterflies break out from the pit of her stomach, suddenly everything is _good_ again.

Her fingers grasp at his neck as they simultaneously part with sharp inhales of the warm air now surrounding them. Instantly, she feels light in the head - dizzy as he secures his hold beneath her thigh and shifts her away from the door. Her mind fogs and her legs cling onto him to keep herself from slipping as he unsteadily yet urgently carries her across the room.

" _I've missed you_ ," he mumbles in an absent daze against her lips. Their breaths race against each other as her heart erupts in a mass of thundering excitement. She wants to respond; to let it be known to him just how much _she_ has missed _him,_ but her entirety feels too overwhelmed. All she finds herself capable of is to stare back into his eyes before dropping her gaze to slowly approach his face and allow the trail of long, savoring kisses travelling from the tip of his eyebrow down to the corner of his lips to speak for her.

His steps stop faltering and instead hasten towards the bed, where he promptly chucks a stray pillow onto the floor and pushes her onto her back. His weight on her feels magnificent; just right, as if it has been the one thing her body never realized was missing. His hands slide up her shirt with pining curiosity as her own find their path away from his neck and around his torso to his back; but his shirt remains obnoxiously in the way. He seems to catch on to its inconvenience as he swiftly pushes himself off of her, yanks his shirt off and finds her lips again. Her heart races at the speed of wind as her partially opened eyes soak in the flawless lines of ink tracing his chest, his arms, his back.

Her fingers run along his back, stroking it gently; she hears him release a soft hum as he parts his lips from hers and pushes himself off to look at her. She gazes into his eyes; his glistening, full of life eyes. She can hear his heartbeat hammering against his chest. Tenderly, he runs his hand up her chest, making indecipherable designs with the tips of his fingers. He moves it up her neck, up her jaw until it is cupping her cheek. He bends, his lips meeting her forehead as he whispers, so low she could barely make it, "You're perfect."

He moves down her nose, kissing the tip of it, " _Perfect._ "

She closes her eyes.

He moves to kiss her cheek. She releases a soft breath. He moves to kiss her other cheek. She feels her eyes start to sting once more. He slowly moves to her lips, taking a lengthy moment to first trail his hand down her arm until it meets her own, where he lovingly entwines his fingers with hers before finally capturing her lips once more, his tongue slipping into her mouth and finding her own.

And he gives her a kiss that, however many more they may share in the time ahead, Nami understands with every part of her will be the one that promised his love for her.


End file.
